Forget Me Not
by SinkOrFly
Summary: Tired of feeling heartbroken after Robin's death, Regina takes a Forgetting Potion to eradicate all memories of her True Love. However, things don't go to plan as she can still remember Robin, but has no idea who the blonde sheriff, who goes by the name of 'Emma Swan', is.
1. Chapter 1

_"Happy New Year!_ "

Granny's Diner erupted into cheers and hoots as soon as the countdown reached zero. Party poppers were pulled, drinks were clinked together, fireworks could be seen through the window. It was a happy time, the beginning of a new year, who wouldn't be thrilled?

Well, as everyone else in the room celebrated this new beginning, Regina stood in the corner with her arms folded across her chest and watched. She watched Henry and Violet soothing Neal, who had been awoken by the loud noises, though they stopped to give each other a quick peck as the new year began; she watched Mary Margaret and David kiss and hug; she watched the dwarfs take a shot together; she watched Archie scolding Pongo for eating the sausage from his plate; then her eyes fell on Emma and Killian.

She watched as Killian turned Emma's head to face him, then she watched as the pirate ducked his head and stole a kiss from the blonde. Regina closed her eyes and turned away, feeling a sharp pain stab inside her chest. This was too much, it was too hard. It was New Years Eve, well, New Years Day now, and she was all alone. She had been alone since Robin had died, and she couldn't take it anymore. She was lonely, when a few short months ago she had thought that she would never be lonely again.

Every time she saw a couple, she remembered Robin, and remembered when she hadn't been alone. It was silly, really. She had been alone for 28 years during the curse (with the exception of Henry), and she had been fine. But, back then, she hadn't known what she was missing. Obviously she had been heartbroken about Daniel, but she and Daniel had never really had the chance to be together properly, not like she and Robin had. Now she knew what it was like to be with someone, and what it was like to not be alone in the world, and she missed that.

Usually, she could take it, but she couldn't anymore. She wished that she could just forget about Robin, so that she wouldn't know what she was missing. If only there was a way to forget all of their time together, because then she could...

Wait. There was a way. There was a potion, the one that Snow had taken in the Enchanted Forest, that made people forget their true love. If Regina took that, then she would forget about Robin and all their time together. She would forget about his death and how upset she had been. She wouldn't be heartbroken anymore.

Regina immediately turned to the table that she was standing next to, which she had put her handbag and coat on. She picked up her things and then walked across the room to the door, slipping outside before anyone could notice.

* * *

The sun was just starting to rise when Regina finally returned to the mansion, sleep deprived and hungry, but with a Forgetting Potion tucked into her coat pocket. She had worked away in her vault for hours, perfecting the potion that she had never actually created before, but she finally felt confident that she had got it right. She hadn't taken it yet, but she was going to soon. Today, probably.

She entered through the back door, which led to the kitchen, to try to make as little noise as possible. She didn't want to wake Zelena or the baby, as that would just lead to a million questions about where she'd been and what she'd been doing, and she didn't really feel like answering right now, especially after being awake for twenty four hours.

And, of course, Zelena had had a late night too, seeing as everyone in Storybrooke had stayed up past midnight to welcome the new year. Regina was kind enough to not want to wake her sister after so little sleep, especially seeing as Zelena had a baby. She didn't get enough sleep as it was.

Regina put her keys and phone on the counter next to the door, then slipped out of her heels. She bent down to pick up her shoes, intending to put them away, (she may be exhausted, but that was no excuse for making a mess), but a voice made her jump before she had the chance to move.

"Really, sis? The walk of shame?"

Regina almost jumped out of her skin, then scowled and turned to see her sister sitting at the breakfast bar with a cup of coffee in her hands. How she had missed Zelena, she didn't know. She must have been more tired than she'd initially thought.

"Zelena, what are you doing up?" Regina asked, feeling herself blush at being made jump.

"I wanted to see if you'd come home yet, but you hadn't, so I decided to wait for you. I'll admit, I was getting a little bit worried, but it's good to see that you're fine. More than fine, by the looks of things. Isn't that the dress you were wearing last night?" Zelena looked Regina up and down with a smirk, making her roll her eyes.

"Yes, but this isn't what it looks like."

"Who's the lucky guy?" Zelena completely ignored Regina's words.

"I wasn't with a guy." Regina informed her sister.

"Oh." Zelena raised her eyebrows. "Then who's the lucky _woman_?"

Regina rolled her eyes again. "I wasn't with a woman, either. I wasn't with _anyone_."

Regina crossed the room before Zelena could reply, picked up the coffee pot, and poured herself a cup. She was going to need all the caffeine she could get if she was going to stay awake all day. At least she didn't have to work, seeing as it was New Year's Day.

"Then where have you been all night?" Zelena asked, surprising Regina by sounding genuinely curious, and even a little worried, instead of just trying to tease her and embarrass her.

They had built up a bond over the past few months, especially since they'd started living together, but it still amazed Regina when Zelena showed signs that she really cared about her, even if it was just the slightest glimmer. Maybe it was because of the troubled past that they had had, but it came as a pleasant surprise to Regina whenever her sister displayed actions even slightly related to love.

"I was at the vault." Regina replied, seeing no use in lying about what she had been doing. If she took the potion, then people would notice that she no longer possessed any memories of Robin anyway, so she may as well tell people from the get-go.

"Why? What were you doing? Is Storybrooke in trouble again?" Wow, Zelena was even showing signs that she cared about the people of Storybrooke. She had come a long way since she'd first arrived.

"No, it's nothing like that." Regina assured her sister. She took a sip of her coffee, then put down her cup and reached into her pocket, pulling out the vial with the white, glowing liquid inside. "I was making this."

"What is that?" Zelena asked in curiosity. She stood up and walked over to Regina, taking the small bottle and inspecting its contents.

"It's a forgetting potion." Regina informed, taking the bottle back.

"And why would you need that?"

"Because I want to forget Robin."

Regina expected Zelena to react right away; to either call her crazy, or ask her why, or even just accept Regina's choice with disinterest in the matter. Instead, Zelena stared at Regina like she was waiting for her to laugh and say that she was only joking. When it became clear that Regina wasn't going to do that, Zelena frowned and walked back over to her stool at the breakfast bar.

"Wh- Why would you want to do that?" Zelena finally asked, her voice full of confusion.

Regina sighed and leaned against the counter. "Because I'm sick of being heartbroken. I'm in pain, emotionally, and sometimes even physically, and I have been ever since Robin died. I'm alone now, and-"

"You're not alone. You have a family." Zelena corrected. "You have me, and Henry, and Robyn, and Emma."

"And all of you have someone else." Regina argued. " You have Robyn, Henry has Violet, Emma has the damn pirate. I don't have anyone, and that hurts me."

"But forgetting Robin isn't going to change that." Zelena reminded her.

"I know, but..." Regina sighed and rubbed her face. This made sense to her, but saying it out loud made it sound like a bad idea. "I was fine before Robin. It didn't hurt me to see other couples around town. But now... I see Emma and Killian kissing on New Year's and feel like someone has stabbed me in the chest. I think it's because Robin showed me what it's like to not be alone, and I liked that. Now that I'm on my own again, I see people together and remember that I used to have someone too. If I forget Robin, then I'll forget what it's like to have someone, and it won't hurt to see other people get their happy ending. You can't miss something that you never had."

When Regina finished her explanation, she noticed that Zelena was just staring into her coffee cup, and didn't answer when she had finished talking. Regina frowned and asked, "Did that make any sense?"

"It did. Sort of." Zelena acknowledged. "But I don't know if it's a good idea."

"Why?"

"Because you have a lot of good memories with Robin, right?"

Regina thought about her time with Robin, and tried to find some good memories, but she could only recall a couple. To be honest, her time with Robin had been hectic and tumultuous, filled with a wife who came back from the dead, (Well, technically she came back from the past, but still), a pregnant sister, and trips to Camelot and the Underworld. The only moment of true happiness that came to mind at the moment was the night of the ball in Camelot, when she had danced with Robin in a beautiful dress.

Even then, it wasn't Robin who made that memory amazing. It was feeling like a princess at a ball filled with her friends and family, with Henry looking all grown up, which had made her so proud. It was also one of the few times that Regina had seen Emma look like the princess that she was.

But, Regina didn't want Zelena to know that she lacked good memories with Robin. Robin was her true love, assigned to her with pixie dust, she would be ungrateful to say that she hadn't been overly happy with him.

"Of course I have good memories with him."

"Then do you really want to lose those?" Zelena asked. "Yes, you'll be taking away the pain, but you'll also be taking away the happiness."

"I won't know what I'm missing." Regina argued. "I wouldn't be sad about losing the memories because I wouldn't know that I'd had them in the first place."

"Do you ever wish that you could forget about Daniel?" Zelena asked, making Regina frown.

"Of course not."

"But I bet you did at the time. I bet that it hurt so much when you lost him that you wished you could forget about him to take away the pain. But you moved past it. That's what you have to do now: just move past it. It will pass and you'll be fine. And until it does, you have your family to support you."

"Zelena," Regina sighed. "I appreciate you wanting what's best for me, but I've already made up my mind. There's nothing that you can say to change it back."

Zelena nodded her head, accepting Regina's words, though she didn't look too happy. "So, when are you taking the potion then?"

Regina looked at the vial in her hands. There was no time like the present. "Right now." Regina said decisively, before she could actually change her mind. She was pretty confident that this was what she wanted, but 'pretty confident' could soon become 'unsure' if she let her mind play on it for too long.

So, Regina pulled the top off the bottle and stared at the liquid for a moment. After a deep breath, she brought the bottle to her lips and tipped her head back, downing the contents in one.

As soon as she'd swallowed, Regina felt a tingling throughout her body, especially in her head. She felt weak, and needed to grab onto the counter for support. Then, a white light emanated from her body, almost blinding her as it illuminated the room. Regina felt dizzy, her head started spinning, it was such a horrible feeling that Regina worried that she hadn't made the potion right.

But then her mind went blank, as if everything had been sucked out of her brain. She didn't know where she was, or _who_ she was, for a full ten seconds. After that, things started to filter back to her. All of her memories came back, one by one, until she felt that she had pieced together a full puzzle.

As quickly as it had begun, the process ended. The light disappeared, her mind became clear again, her head stopped spinning. Everything returned to normal, all at once, except for the fact that the last few moments were rather hazy. But she knew that she was fine, even though she was standing in her kitchen, with Zelena staring at her, clinging to the kitchen counter like her life depended on it.

"Well?" Zelena said, sounding nervous.

Why was Zelena nervous? Regina stood up straight and realised that she was holding something. She looked down and saw that it was a tiny, empty bottle. She frowned and lifted it up, wondering why she was holding it. That's when she remembered what had happened: that she'd taken a forgetting potion to forget Robin and make herself happy again.

And it clearly hadn't been successful, because she remembered Robin clear as day, and everything about him. She remembered Tinker Bell showing her the man with the lion tattoo in the Enchanted Forest, all the way up til Hades killed Robin.

Regina sighed and slammed the bottle onto the counter top. "It didn't work." She said through gritted teeth. "I remember Robin."

"But I thought-"

"I must have made it wrong." Regina shrugged, then turned around. "That's the only explanation."

"Regina, I-"

"Zelena, don't. It's fine. Maybe it's for the best." Regina hated seeing the look of sympathy that her sister was currently sporting, mostly because she knew that it was exaggerated. Zelena didn't feel _that_ badly when bad things happened to others. She may be a better person now, but she was still Zelena. "I'm going to go for a shower." Regina said. "I've been wearing the same clothes for twenty-four hours, I feel disgusting."

Regina didn't wait for her sister to reply. She walked out of the room, too fed up to deal with talking to Zelena.

How did the potion not work? It didn't make sense. It _should_ have worked, and it certainly felt like it was doing something when the light had shined from Regina. In fact, it still felt like it had done something, because Regina didn't feel that same pain that she had felt for such a long time. She was thinking about Robin, and she was thinking about the fact that everyone else in Storybrooke had someone apart from her, and of course that hurt to think about, but it wasn't a soul-crushing pain anymore. Something was definitely different.

Not to mention the empty feeling in Regina's chest. It was as if a part of her anatomy had been removed, leaving a gaping hole inside of her. The potion had definitely done something, just not what she had intended.

* * *

 _'The person that you are calling is currently unavailable. Please call again at another time, or leave a message after-'_

"Damn it!"

Emma clicked 'end call' and threw her phone onto the couch, beginning to pace in front of it. Regina wasn't answering her calls, and hadn't been all morning. She had disappeared from Granny's last night, without saying anything to anyone, not even Henry, and Emma hadn't seen or heard from her since. She was worried. What if something had happened to her? What if she'd been involved in some sort of accident? What if she was seriously injured? Or even _dead_?

"There you are," Killian's voice came from the doorway to Emma's living room. "When I woke up alone, I thought you'd done a runner."

"This is _my_ house." Emma reminded him.

"Soon to be _ours_."

Emma rolled her eyes and carried on pacing. Killian wanted to move in, but he hadn't even checked to see if it was OK with Emma, (it wasn't, by the way). At some point, Emma was going to have to tell him. But that time wasn't right now.

Killian walked further into the room, collapsing onto the couch and rubbing his head with his good hand. He was wearing some sweatpants, but no t-shirt or socks. When he put his bare feet on Emma's coffee table, the blonde wrinkled her nose but didn't say anything. "I think I had too much rum last night."

"Seeing as I had to practically carry you home, I'd say that you're correct." Emma responded.

Killian laughed, despite Emma's lack of amusement. "It was a good night though."

"Hmm." Emma said absently.

Honestly, it wasn't. Killian had been glued to her side, drinking too much and being too loud. Every time she tried to escape him, be would be back again, with another bottle of rum in hand. Maybe that was why Emma didn't see Regina leave.

"Swan, would you stop pacing? You're making me dizzy." Killian said, though his eyes were closed anyway.

Emma rolled her eyes at him and made no move to stop. "I'm pacing because I'm worried." She informed her boyfriend. "Regina has disappeared and she isn't answering her phone."

"So?" Killian said with a lack of interest.

Emma looked at him in disbelief, although his eyes were still closed so he couldn't see it. "What do you mean, ' _So?_ '? Something could have happened to her!"

"She's a big girl, love, I think she can take care of herself." He said with a chuckle. "Actually, scrap that, she's the former Evil Queen, I think she can take care of herself."

"Even former Evil Queens get into accidents, Killian." Emma reminded him. "Maybe I should go to the mansion." She said thoughtfully.

"Why would you do that?"

"To see if she's there." Emma said, as if it were obvious. She picked up her phone, which was next to Killian, then grabbed her keys from the coffee table.

"Wait a second. Aren't you going to take care of your hungover boyfriend?" Killian asked, sitting up and looking at Emma expectantly.

"You're a big boy, Killian. I think you can take care of yourself." Emma retorted, making the man roll his eyes.

"You're seriously choosing Regina over me?" Killian asked in disbelief. "I'm your boyfriend. Shouldn't you care more about _my_ well-being?"

"You're fine." Emma glanced around for her red leather jacket, but couldn't see it anywhere. She must have left it at Granny's.

"Regina probably is too."

"I don't like the word 'probably'." Emma stated, shrugging on a brown leather jacket instead. "I want to know that she definitely is."

"Seriously, Swan, it isn't normal how much you care about that woman."

Emma paused her movements to look at her boyfriend in disbelief. "Are you serious? It isn't normal to care about people?"

"That's not what I said."

"I don't care." Emma shook her head. "I'm going to check on Regina. I'll see you later."

* * *

After parking her bug in front of the mansion on Mifflin Street, Emma practically ran to the door. Her imagination was taking her on a wild ride, supplying her with all of the various things that could have happened to Regina.

Car accident. Murder. Kidnap. One-night stand. Overslept. But this was Storybrooke, which meant that anything was possible. Regina could have been eaten by a giant marshmallow for all Emma knew. Still, Emma was praying that Regina had simply gone home and slept. Maybe her phone had died and that's why she wasn't picking up. As long as Regina was OK, that's all that mattered.

As soon as Emma reached the door, she knocked three times, loudly. After waiting for a couple of seconds, impatience started eating away at her, and she knocked again. After another couple of seconds, she knocked again. This time, the door opened to reveal a very confused, but very safe, Regina.

"Regina, thank God you're OK." Emma said, relief washing over her. She had the strongest urge to hug the brunette, but they had never actually done that before, so she stopped herself. Instead, she walked past the other woman, inviting herself into the mansion. "After you pulled a Houdini and disappeared from Granny's, I thought that something had happened to you. I've been calling you all morning, but you didn't pick up." Emma turned around, seeing Regina still standing next to the open door, looking at her as if she were insane. "Did your phone die or something? And why did you leave Granny's without telling me? And why did you leave so early, anyway?"

"Um," Regina said, looking at her doorstep, where Emma had just been standing, then looking back to Emma with confusion written all over her face.

"What is it?" Emma asked. "I know that I didn't tell you that I was coming over," She said, thinking that that was the reason that Regina looked so perplexed. "But I couldn't get hold of you. As I said, you wouldn't answer your phone. I thought something bad had happened, so I had to come and check on you. You know, to make sure that you weren't the victim of some horrific monster. Let's face it, this is Storybrooke." Emma laughed at herself, but Regina was still looking at her in such a strange way that she was getting concerned. "Regina, would you please say something?"

Regina folded her arms across her chest, making herself look more powerful and confident. "I have two questions for you."

"Okay...?"

"Who the hell are you, and why are you in my house?"

* * *

 **A/N: Dun, dun, dunnnnn. Though I guess you all saw that coming, based on the summary. But I had to start somewhere, right?**

 **This isn't going to be a huge fic; maybe four chapters or something. But, even though I have other stories on the go, this idea came to me and I _had_ to write it.**

 **Please let me know if you find this idea interesting, and whether you'll stick around for another chapter. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

When there was a knock on Regina's front door, she assumed that it was Henry. He had spent the night at Violet's house (on a blow-up bed, Regina had been assured, so that there was nothing inappropriate going on), so Regina figured that he had just returned home. He must have forgotten his key or something.

So, Regina immediately stood from her bed and started walking towards the stairs, only getting to her bedroom doorway before there was another knock, this one louder and with more urgency. Regina frowned to herself, annoyed at the impatience of whoever was at the door. She had raised Henry better than this, hadn't she? She had raised him to be polite and respectful and patient, so he wouldn't do something as obnoxious as knocking twice. But who else would come to her house at ten thirty in the morning?

Regina walked down the stairs, hearing another knock when she was on the last step. She sighed, feeling frustrated at this person who clearly had no manners. Wasn't it just common courtesy that you knocked on a door and waited patiently for someone to answer? You didn't knock again two seconds later; that was just rude and annoying. Regina was already planning a lecture to give to Henry if it was him at the door. Even if it wasn't Henry, chances were that she would still chastise whoever it was. She just found it completely rude that someone would be so ignorant.

Regina opened her mouth as she opened the door, ready to start scolding whoever it was. However, all words died on her tongue when she was faced with a blonde stranger. An attractive blonde stranger, at that, with long blonde hair and forest green eyes. And she was tall. Regina had been expecting to at least know the person, but she could hardly scold someone that she didn't even know. Besides, she didn't know what this woman wanted yet. Maybe it was an emergency, Regina decided, giving the blonde the benefit of the doubt. Regina shook her head at herself, knowing that she wasn't really above telling off a stranger. She was only being lenient because this woman, whoever she was, was extremely attractive.

"Regina, thank God you're OK." The woman said. How did she know her name? Actually, that was the least of her worries, because the next thing she knew, the blonde was pushing past her and walking _into her house_. "After you pulled a Houdini and disappeared from Granny's last night..."

The woman kept on talking, but Regina wasn't listening. She was too busy wondering how the woman knew her name, and how she knew that Regina had been at Granny's last night.

Regina turned around to look at the woman, who was now standing in the middle of her foyer, she realised that the blonde was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something.

"Um," Regina didn't know what to say. She was stunned, unsure what was happening. She was already predisposed to dislike this woman, seeing as she had rudely knocked more times than was necessary, but now she disliked her even more because she had the audacity to storm into her house, rambling nonsense as if they knew each other.

"What is it?" The woman asked, looking at Regina as if _she_ was the crazy one. "I know that I didn't tell you that I was coming over, but I couldn't get a hold of you. As I said, you wouldn't answer your phone. I thought something bad had happened, so I had to come and check on you. You know, to make sure that you weren't the victim of some horrific monster. Let's face it, this is Storybrooke." The woman laughed, expecting Regina to do the same, but Regina was too busy wondering if this woman was completely unhinged. "Regina, would you please say something?"

Regina had to put a stop to this. Who on earth did this woman think she was? Barging into Regina's mansion as if she had every right to do so? It made Regina's blood boil. And why was she acting like she and Regina knew each other? It was unsettling for the brunette, but she tried to hide it by standing up straighter and folding her arms. "I have two questions for you." Regina said firmly.

"Okay...?"

"Who the hell are you, and why are you in my house?"

The woman frowned, as if she didn't understand the question. She scratched the back of her neck awkwardly, while Regina watched, waiting for an answer. Eventually, the woman tilted her head to the side and said, "I... Uh... What?"

"Who do you think you are? This is my home, you can't just walk in here."

"I'm sorry." The woman said, looking genuinely guilty. "I just thought that... I've known you for years now and we're friends, so I thought it would be OK."

Regina looked to the side, trying to make sense of what this woman was saying, but it made literally no sense. "I don't know you. We're not friends." Regina said. She wondered if the woman was mistaking her for someone else, but she had called her 'Regina', so that was impossible.

"What are you talking about?" The woman asked, as if she couldn't understand what was happening either.

At that moment, Regina heard Zelena coming down the stairs, which also grasped the attention of the blonde. "Were you the one who just tried to beat the door down?" Zelena asked when she could see the blonde.

"I guess so." The blonde shrugged. "I was worried about Regina because she wasn't answering my calls, and-"

"How, exactly, do you know my name?" Regina asked, interrupting the lunatic. Both Zelena and the blonde turned to her with matching looks of confusion.

"I don't..." The woman looked utterly perplexed by the question. "I don't understand."

"What part of that question tripped you up?" Regina asked. "How. Do. You. Know. My. Name?"

The woman turned to look at Zelena, then pointed her thumb towards Regina. "Is she serious?"

Zelena shrugged, then turned to Regina and watched closely to see what she would do next. "I'm serious." Regina said, making the blonde look at her again. "Who are you?"

The woman actually _laughed_ at that, as if some part of this was amusing. It was more of a nervous laugh than an actual laugh, but it was still a laugh, and Regina had to grit her teeth to help control herself. "Is this a joke?" The woman asked.

"No!" Regina said with exasperation. "Who are you?"

"Well, this _is_ an interesting development." Zelena stated, leaning against the wall and folding her arms, with a smirk forming on her lips.

The blonde turned to the redhead and said, "Zelena, what's happening?" Which made Zelena shrug, though she was still smirking and, quite clearly, she was thoroughly amused.

Regina looked between the two women for a moment, confused by both of their behaviour. She was confused by the blonde who was acting, for some reason, as though they knew each other (and she knew a concerning amount about Regina and Zelena), and she was confused by Zelena because her sister didn't seem worried about it in the slightest. She decided that she could deal with her sister later, and settled her eyes on the blonde woman.

"How do you know my name? How do you know my _sister's_ name? How do you know where we live? How do you know where I was last night?"

The woman glanced from side to side as though she would find the answers somewhere in the room. Finally, she looked back at Regina with a look of concern. "Regina, are you OK?"

"I'm fine." Regina nodded. "It's you that I'm worried about."

"Zelena, what-"

"Who are you?" Regina interrupted.

"Zelena, would you-"

"If you don't answer me in the next thirty seconds..." Regina started, talking through gritted teeth.

"Alright." The blonde held her hands up in surrender. "I'll humour you. My name is Emma Swan; I'm your best friend; I'm the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming; I'm your son's mother..."

Regina couldn't stop her mouth from dropping open in disbelief at the lies that this woman was telling. She was acting as though Regina wouldn't know any better, which was completely absurd. "You're delusional."

"What?" The woman - Emma - narrowed her eyes.

"Ms. Swan, I've never met you before!" Regina reminded Emma. "You're not my 'best friend' because I don't know you! Snow and David only have one child and, unless Neal has had a sex change and aged thirty years over night, you're not him. And... what did you say about my son?"

Emma folded her arms across her chest and looked as though she was accepting some sort of challenge that Regina had given. "I'm Henry's birth mother."

Regina sputtered for a moment, not knowing what to say or whether to believe Emma. The blonde was clearly insane; she had been blurting out nonsense ever since Regina had opened the door to her. Usually, Regina would have just laughed in her face and shooed her out of the house, but something stopped her. It was the realisation that Regina had thought there was something familiar about the blonde this whole time, and now she knew what it was: she could see Henry in her. Or she could see Emma in Henry. Either way, they had some of the same features, which terrified Regina.

" _You're_ Henry's birth mother?" Regina asked, her heart beginning to race.

"Yes." Emma confirmed, as if it were obvious.

Is that why Emma knew so much about Regina? Because, when she had found her son, she had done some research on his adoptive family? Researched the competition because she wanted to take her son back? This woman wanted to take Henry away from her?

"But I- I thought it was a closed adoption. The records were sealed. I was told that the birth mother didn't want any contact."

Emma glanced at Zelena, as if looking for help, but the redhead just continued to watch in interest, leaving Emma to fend for herself. "Regina, we went through this years ago. Henry found me in Boston, he-"

"Years ago?" Regina repeated.

"Yes! Y'know, before I broke the curse..."

Emma knew about the curse, which meant that she was from Storybrooke. Storybrooke was a small town, how had Regina never seen her before? But, Emma's facts were wrong, because she didn't break the curse. Henry broke the curse.

"Have you escaped from an asylum or something?" Regina asked.

Emma looked slightly amused, but mostly confused. "No..." Emma leaned on one leg and eyed Regina. "What's going on here? You know that we know each other, right? We share a son. Henry stayed at my house last weekend, remember? You yelled at me for letting him watch an R rated movie."

Regina's heart started to race when Emma started talking about her son like that. It was one thing for this woman to act like she knew Regina, but something completely different when she acted as though she co-parented Regina's child. It made Regina fear for her son's safety, which was not acceptable. She was close to calling the police.

Instead, Regina shook her head and said, "I want you out of my house. Now." She turned to the door, which was still open, and opened it wider.

"Regina, I-"

"Are you actually Henry's birth mother? Or are you lying about that, too?" Regina asked, not being able to help herself.

"I've not lied about anything!" Emma insisted.

Regina shook her head. "For the sake of argument, let's just say that you _are_ his mother for a moment. You signed a closed adoption, Ms. Swan, which means that you have no legal right to my son. If you ever go near him, I _will_ get law enforcement involved. Do you understand that?"

"I-" Emma frowned and looked away for a second. "I don't understand what's happening."

"Get out of my house."

"I-"

"Get out of my house!" Regina yelled, making Emma visibly jump. The blonde looked around, then slowly walked towards the door, seeming torn on whether she should actually leave. She didn't say anything as she left, but Regina spoke as she passed: "You're not safe to be around children, anyway. You should be institutionalised."

Emma looked shocked at the comment, and turned to look at Zelena. However, Zelena just held up her hand into a wave and said: "Ta-ta."

Once the blonde was through the doorway, Regina slammed the door and locked it. She brought a hand to her head, uncomfortable with what had just happened and suddenly very concerned about her son and his safety. "I need to call Henry. Make sure he's alright." Regina commented.

Zelena rolled her eyes and pushed off the wall. "I'm sure he's fine."

Regina hoped her sister was right, but still pulled her phone out of her pocket. On her way to the stairs, she said, "That was unbelievable."

Behind her, she heard Zelena laugh and say, "Unbelievable, indeed." Then, when Regina was at the top of the stairs, she heard: "I'm going to go and speak to Gold. Can you watch Robyn while I'm gone?"

"Of course!" Regina called back down.

Why did Zelena need to speak to Gold though? It was too late to ask, if the sound of the door closing was anything to go by.

* * *

When Emma returned home, she felt dazed. What the hell had happened back there? Why was Regina acting so strangely? If Zelena hadn't been so calm and unconcerned, Emma would have been freaking out.

Was it some weird joke? Had Regina suffered a bump to the head and was suffering from concussion? But she had seemed fine, if not a little crazy.

"Oh, hello Honey." Mary Margaret said as Emma wandered into the loft. Emma looked around, wondering why she had come to her parents' house instead of her own. Maybe it was because part of her knew that Killian was at her house, and she couldn't be bothered dealing with him right now. Not when she was so confused about what had just happened at the mansion. "Are you OK?"

Emma looked at her mother, who was standing in the kitchen washing some dishes, and shrugged. "I'm fine. I just went to check on Regina."

"Oh?" Mary Margaret said. "And how is she? She left Granny's without saying goodbye last night."

"Physically? She's fine." Emma stated. "Mentally? That's debatable."

David laughed as he walked down the stairs, carrying Neal. "Well, I could have told you that all along. Sounds like a wasted trip to me." He joked.

"No, I'm serious." Emma said, causing both of her parents to look at her with interest. "She was acting like she didn't even know me. She asked me who I am, and couldn't believe that I'm Henry's birth mother."

"What?" David asked, looking confused.

"She told me to stay away from her son. And then said that _I_ should be institutionalised." Emma informed them, the absurdity of it still confusing her.

"Have you two had a fight?" Mary Margaret asked, drying her hands on a dishtowel.

"No," Emma shook her head. "She wasn't saying it to insult me, though it _was_ insulting. She was being serious. She was acting like she didn't know who I was, and then thought that I was crazy for acting like we do."

"But why would she be doing that?" David asked. "Do you think that she was just joking?"

"I have no idea. It was really weird though. She said that you guys only have one child, and that's Neal."

"I don't think that Regina would pretend to not know you as a joke. It doesn't really seem like something that she would do. Maybe she really doesn't know you." Mary Margaret suggested. "Maybe something has happened that's made her forget."

"Like what?" Emma asked. "You think she developed amnesia over night?"

Mary Margaret shrugged. "I don't know what's happened, sweetie. I'm just trying to come up with some ideas. Was Zelena not there?"

"She was." Emma admitted. "But she didn't seem too worried about Regina. She just watched her, and she seemed very amused."

"Maybe you should ask Zelena what's going on then." David suggested. "It sounds like she knows something that you don't."

"Maybe you're right." Emma nodded. She walked over to the couch and sat down, letting out a heavy sigh and rubbing her face.

"I know that it's weird, but you'll figure it out." Mary Margaret said, trying to make her daughter feel better.

"It's not that, it's just..." Emma leaned back, letting her head fall against the cushion. "She called me 'Ms. Swan'. She said that I'm not allowed to see Henry. She ordered me out of her house. It reminded me of when I'd just come to town and she hated me. It felt like I was back to square one. She's my best friend and she was looking at me like she hated me."

"It's just temporary though." Mary Margaret said, walking over to the couch. "If it's a joke, she'll tell you. If she really has forgotten you, we'll find a way to make her remember. She doesn't actually hate you."

"I know, but..." Emma sighed and shook her head. "It's stupid, but it really upset me. Having her look at me like she hated me and thought that I was insane. Having her look at me with apprehension, like she was scared that I would lash out. I don't want Regina to hate me again, not when I... Not when I care so much about her."

Mary Margaret put her hand on Emma's shoulder and gave it a reassuring rub. "We'll figure this out. And, as I said, she doesn't really hate you. She cares about you too."

Emma nodded her head, grateful that her mother was there for her. She saw David walk over too, and he sat in the armchair near her with Neal on his lap, and reached over to give her knee a squeeze.

"Why don't you text Zelena? Ask to speak to her about whatever is going on with Regina?" David suggested.

Emma nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket, typing out a quick message: _Hey, it's Emma. I need to talk to you about Regina._

The reply came seconds later: _**I'm at Granny's. Meet me?**_

* * *

 **A/N: Hmm, do I make Zelena helpful or wicked? I guess you'll just have to wait and see ;)**

 **Thank you to everyone who has shown interest in this story. I appreciate all of the reviews and favourites and follows, they truly bring a smile to my face every time.**

 **Hope to see you at the next chapter :)**


	3. Chapter 3

When the bell above the door of Granny's chimed, Zelena looked up to see who was arriving, expecting it to be Emma. She had texted the blonde twenty minutes ago telling her to meet her, and she knew that the blonde could easily get to the diner within ten minutes. She should be here any minute, and Zelena could tell her what she had found out. However, when Zelena saw that it was just one of the dwarfs, she looked back at her tea, which she was stirring with a spoon.

She had just been to see Gold about what was going on with Regina. She had taken the empty potion bottle, which Regina had left in the kitchen, and still contained a couple of drops of the white liquid. If anyone could solve the mystery of what had happened to make Regina forget Emma instead of Robin, it was Mr. Gold.

Zelena had gone to his shop and told him how Regina had made the potion to forget her true love - Robin - but it seemed that she had forgotten Emma instead. Handing over the potion bottle, Zelena asked Mr. Gold if there was a chance that her sister had messed up the potion, which could have made her to forget the wrong person. After inspecting the remnants of the potion, Mr. Gold told Zelena the news that she had been hoping for: the potion was fine. _If Regina has taken that potion, then she has forgotten her true love, dearie. Even if it isn't quite who she thought it was._

Zelena had been delighted with the news. Not only did it mean that Regina's chance at happiness wasn't over, but it also meant that Zelena got to have a little fun of her own. Let's face it, finding out that the former Evil Queen and the Saviour were soulmates was a wonderful piece of irony, and Zelena loved the unexpectedness of it.

The Evil Queen and the Saviour; the mayor and the sheriff; Henry's adoptive mother and his birth mother.

Emma and Regina were true love's and they didn't even know it. Hell, Emma was still dating Killian. Not for much longer. Zelena would tell Emma what had happened, then she would sit back and watch as those two idiots finally admitted their love for one another, shared true love's kiss, and lived happily ever after.

Zelena smiled to herself and sipped her tea. This was going to be entertaining.

The bell above the door chimed again, and when Zelena looked up, she was satisfied to see that Emma was finally here. She looked around the room, spotted Zelena, then walked over to the table that she was sitting at, looking nervous.

"What's going on with Regina?" Emma asked as soon as she reached the table. Her butt had hardly reached the seat across from Zelena before she was demanding answers.

"Now, now. Patience, dear. Are you sure that you don't want to order a coffee before we get into it?" Zelena asked, smirking at Emma's haste.

"No, I don't want a coffee." Emma said seriously. "I want to know why Regina is acting like she doesn't even know me."

"She's acting like she doesn't know you because she _doesn't_ know you." Zelena supplied, sipping her tea casually. She was extremely amused when Emma frowned in complete confusion. "At least, she doesn't _know_ that she knows you." Zelena added, making Emma even more confused.

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked. "Has she had an accident?" The blonde asked seriously, concern all over her face. "Is it amnesia? Concussion?"

"Will you calm down?" Zelena said dismissively, putting down her cup. "It's nothing like that."

"Then will you please explain to me what's going on?" Emma asked with exasperation.

"Yes," Zelena said with a sigh. "But only because I'd rather you didn't have a brain aneurysm." Emma just rolled her eyes, which Zelena ignored and started her explanation. "Regina has been upset about Robin's death-"

"What does this have to do with me?" Emma interrupted. The blonde's grumpy reaction to hearing Robin's name didn't go unnoticed by the redhead.

" _Patience_." Zelena said, for the second time. "Since Robin's death, Regina hasn't been happy. She's felt alone and gets upset seeing others being happy together, for example, you and Killian." Zelena stressed the example, emphasising Regina's displeasure towards the couple. Emma just grit her teeth at the mention of Killian, which again, didn't go unnoticed by Zelena. "So, last night, she decided to do something about it. She made a potion to forget her true love, so that she would forget Robin and forget what it was like to _not_ be alone. Her reasoning behind it was that you can't miss what you never had. She wouldn't be upset about not having someone because she wouldn't know what it was like to have someone in the first place."

"So, why-"

" _Emma_." Zelena cut off the blonde. "I'm getting there. Regina took the potion this morning, but thought that it didn't work, because she still remembered Robin. However, when you came to the door earlier, it became apparent that she had forgotten _you_ instead."

"So," Emma paused, waiting for Zelena to snap at her. When it didn't happen, she continued. "So, Regina messed up the potion?"

Zelena leaned back and sipped her tea, not giving any kind of answer. She had done her bit here. She had relayed all of the events to Emma (apart from her visit to Gold), which meant that it was no longer her problem. It was up to Emma and Regina to sort out this mess, and Zelena was going to have a hell of a time watching it happen.

However, Emma took Zelena's silence as confirmation, and leaned back with a thoughtful look on her face. "Huh. So this is all just a mistake." Zelena kept quiet again, watching Emma think. "Well, how can I make her remember me?"

"I hear true love's kiss is the most powerful form of magic. It can break any curse." Zelena hinted.

Emma looked at Zelena as if she were crazy. "Regina's true love is dead, remember?"

Zelena raised an eyebrow. "Is it though?"

Emma looked to the side with an incredulous look on her face. "Yes..." She said, as if she were speaking to a child. "The Olympian Crystal blinked Robin out of existence, remember?"

God, Emma was a bigger idiot than Zelena thought. The redhead rolled her eyes, wondering how Emma hadn't gotten the hint yet. She felt that she had made it obvious, but obviously not obvious enough. Zelena decided to give one more clue, then she would leave it up to Emma.

"Maybe Robin wasn't Regina's true love."

"But Tinker Bell's fairy dust-"

"That was a long time ago." Zelena interrupted, knowing what Emma was going to say.

"So? Fairy dust is the real deal. Or so I hear."

Zelena rolled her eyes again. Who would have known that Regina's true love could be so dense?

"There must be another way for me to get Regina to remember me." Emma mused. "Maybe I should speak to Gold. He gave a forgetting potion to my mom once, back in the Enchanted Forest. Maybe he knows more about them than I do."

"I'd say that's highly likely." Zelena agreed. "But maybe you should hold off speaking to Gold until you've had a proper think about this."

Emma looked at her for a moment and then nodded. "You're right. There's no point wasting Gold's time. I can ask my parents whether or not they have any solutions. We usually find a way to solve these sort of problems."

"Well, I wish you luck." Zelena said.

"Thanks." Emma drummed the table for a second and then stood up. "Well, I should be going. I'm going to get a cup of coffee to go and then speak to my parents."

"Alright. I'll see you around, Emma."

Emma smiled at Zelena, then walked over to the counter. Zelena watched her and then shook her head and sipped her tea. Maybe the Charming's would have more sense than their oblivious daughter.

* * *

"Can I have a cup of coffee to-go, please?" Emma asked Granny as she took a seat on one of the bar stools.

"Coming right up." The older woman replied, walking over to the coffee machine to prepare the beverage.

Emma drummed her fingers on the counter while she waited, thinking about the information that she had just acquired, and trying to think of a way to solve this problem. Regina messed up a potion which made her forget Emma, so maybe a potion would make her remember? But Emma didn't know the first thing about potion-making, so she would have to get someone more experienced involved. It would be better to think some more and speak to her parents before going to unnecessary lengths.

But at least now she knew what had happened. At least now she knew that it wasn't some crazy joke, and at least she knew that Regina hadn't been in an accident. She was fine and this was just a mistake.

"Here you go." Granny placed the cup down in front of Emma as the blonde slid the money to her.

"Hey, did I leave my jacket here last night?" Emma asked, remembering that she had been unable to find it. "It's red and-"

"Made of leather? Yes, I'm familiar with it." Granny joked. "But no, I haven't seen it. I can keep an eye out if you like, though?"

"That would be great." Emma said gratefully. Where had her jacket gone if it wasn't here?

With a shake of her head, Emma stood up and picked up her coffee, about to leave the diner and head back to the loft. However, she only made it a couple of steps before she heard a familiar voice from across the room. The person wasn't speaking to her, but Emma had the ability to pick out this voice anywhere.

"Robyn was starting to fuss. I think she wanted her mommy."

Emma turned around and saw Regina standing next to Zelena's table, picking the baby out of her pram and handing her to the redhead. "It's OK." Zelena soothed the child. "I'm here."

"I'm going to go and get a drink. I'll be back in a second." Regina said, turning towards the counter and walking over to order.

Emma hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether or not she should go over. In the end, she decided that she may as well, because she could at least explain to Regina what had happened. It couldn't do any harm, could it?

Emma walked back over to where she had just been standing and cleared her throat. "Regina?"

Regina turned to Emma, her face dropping as soon as she saw the blonde. "You again. Are you stalking me?"

Emma frowned at the ridiculousness of the question. "What? No! I was here first."

"Well, I don't want to see you, so if you could please-"

"No." Emma said firmly, not letting Regina usher her away. Regina looked taken aback by Emma's response, but stopped talking. "I want to explain to you why you don't know that you know me."

"I can already tell you-"

"Regina, just let me speak." Emma demanded.

"I don't want to hear it!" Regina said, loudly enough that the people sitting at nearby tables stopped to look at them. "You come to my house and lie to my face, making me worry about my safety and the safety of my family; now you track me down while I try to get coffee? It is unacceptable and if you don't leave right now, I'll call the sheriff."

"I _am_ the sheriff and you know that!" Emma told the other woman.

"That's impossible." Regina shook her head adamantly. "David Nolan is the sheriff of this town."

"He's the deputy." Emma corrected, making Regina scowl.

"You are delusional!" Regina said, stepping away from Emma.

"Who's delusional?"

The sound of a new voice entering the conversation made both women turn in its direction. Emma sighed when she saw Killian joining them, wrapping his arm around her waist and facing her. "You're here, Swan. I was getting worried when you didn't come back home."

Emma rolled her eyes, but was prevented from answering due to the sound of Regina's laughter. Both Emma and Killian turned to face the the mayor, wondering what had amused her.

"You know this woman?" Regina said to Killian, making him frown in confusion. He still didn't know about Regina taking the forgetting potion and wiping Emma from her memory.

"Um..." Killian glanced at Emma, as if she would supply an answer. "Of course?"

"Are you dating her?" She asked.

Killian turned to Emma, clearly baffled. "What's she going on about?"

Emma sighed and shook her head. "Killian-"

"I'm going to assume by this," Regina indicated to Killian's arm, which was still wrapped around Emma. "That you _are_ dating her." Regina laughed again. "I should have known that anyone who would willingly date Killian Jones would be insane."

While Regina laughed again, Killian turned to Emma. "Are you two fighting?"

"No, Killian. I'll explain later. Can you just go?" Emma said tiredly.

"And _please_ take this _insane_ woman with you." Regina added.

"What's-"

"Killian, please just leave." Emma tried again.

"But I don't-"

" _Killian_."

Anger flashed in the man's eyes at the stern tone that Emma had used. He clenched his jaw and visibly swallowed, obviously biting his tongue. After a quick glance at Regina to see her reaction, he turned around and walked away, opening and closing the door to the diner with more force than was necessary.

Emma rubbed her face as she turned back around, knowing that she would have to deal with Killian later. She didn't have the time nor the patience to speak to him at the moment. She had more important things to worry about, like Regina.

When Emma looked back at the brunette, she noticed that Regina was turning around, preparing to walk away. Without thinking, Emma reached out and grabbed her wrist while saying 'Wait!' with urgency. She realised that it was probably a mistake when Regina ripped her wrist from her grasp and span around, her eyes dark with anger.

"Get your hands off me and don't you _dare_ touch me again." Regina spat fiercely.

"I'm sorry, I was just-"

"I know what you were doing. You were harassing me, and you still are."

"Well, if you would just _listen_ to me-"

"I think I've listened to you enough for one day."

Regina turned to walk back over to Zelena again, so Emma spoke, hoping it would stop her. "You took a potion to forget Robin, right?"

Regina halted and turned back around, frowning. "How did you-"

"Well, you messed it up." Emma informed the brunette. "Instead of forgetting your true love, you forgot me."

"That's impossible." Regina shook her head.

"No it isn't. That's what happened, I promise you. You _do_ know me. You've known me ever since Henry found me in Boston and brought me back here. You spent a long time hating me, but you don't anymore. We finally see eye to eye, and we raise Henry together and we fight evil together and we..." Emma looked down as she actually felt herself getting emotional. Why was that happening? "Regina, you're one of my best friends. I don't want to lose you because you messed up some stupid potion."

Regina stared at Emma for a few seconds, with an expression that the blonde couldn't read. Was it sceptical? Dubious? Disbelief? Or was it shock because Regina _did_ believe her?

Emma's heart sank when the brunette spun on her heels and stormed back over to the table the Zelena was sitting at. At first, Emma just felt upset and defeated at the fact that Regina could just ignore her like that. How could the brunette just go and sit with Zelena at a time like this? But then her disappointment was replaced with anger. She was angry that Regina wasn't taking her seriously. She was angry that Regina didn't remember her, and didn't even seem to want to.

That anger fuelled her as she stormed over to the table that the sisters were sitting at, then put her hands on it to hold her weight so that she could look Regina in the eye.

"Regina, you can't just dismiss me." Emma said seriously.

"Actually, Ms. Swan, I can." Regina said matter-of-factly. "I'm sorry if you think that I know you, but I don't. Even if I did in the past, I don't anymore, and I don't want you around me."

"Well, tough." Emma said, causing Regina to lift an eyebrow at her. "If you don't want to remember me, then fine. But you can't get rid of me, because Henry is _my_ son too."

"No, he's-"

 _"He's my son too, Regina._ " Emma stressed sternly. "He spends every weekend at my house, and seeing as today is Friday, that means he's spending tonight with me."

"That's not happening." Regina shook her head. "I'm not letting you near my son."

Emma sighed in exasperation, then turned to the redhead at the table. "Zelena, would you please tell Regina the truth?"

Zelena looked surprised at being spoken to, but quickly recovered. She didn't have a choice seeing as she had a blonde and a brunette looking at her expectantly, both of who were waiting for her to back them up. Nothing that Zelena said would satisfy them both, so she stuck to the truth. "OK." Zelena cleared her throat. "Regina, you _do_ know Emma. She _is_ Henry's birth mother, and you _do_ share custody of him. Tonight _is_ Emma's night. The reason that you don't remember Emma is because the forgetting potion must have made you forget her instead of Robin."

Regina narrowed her eyes, studying her sister for any signs of deceit. It seemed that she didn't find any, as she started to shift uncomfortably, then a mask fell into place.

She plastered a neutral expression on her face, which Emma recognised as her mayor face; the face that she made when she was being professional and didn't want to show her emotions. Emma had seen it a lot when she first arrived in Storybrooke, but had seen it less and less the closer she got to Regina. Now, Regina usually didn't shut her out, pre-potion at least. She would just tell Emma what she was thinking or how she was feeling. But now, post-potion, Emma was back to square one. Regina didn't trust her, and looked at her like she wanted her gone.

Regina cleared her throat, trying to look as composed at possible. "Well," She said, not looking Emma in the eye, and instead focusing on smoothing imaginary wrinkles from her clothes. "It seems you were right."

"Yes." Emma confirmed, feeling bad for Regina. It must have been overwhelming for her, and if Regina were showing her emotions, she would probably look distressed.

"Then, I apologise for calling you insane."

"That's OK." Emma said with a small smile. _Finally, we're making progress._

Maybe it was that thought that jinxed them, for without looking Emma in the eye, Regina rose from her seat and said. "Excuse me." Then walked calmly past Emma and out of the diner, confusing the blonde. Should they not have talked about this? Should they not have tried to find a way to make Regina remember? Should they not have at least laughed at the bizarre situation that they were in?

"That could have gone better." The redhead said thoughtfully, earning Emma's attention again.

"Why did she do that?" Emma asked, baffled. "Why did she just leave?"

"She's probably just shocked." Zelena shrugged, rocking Robyn back and forth in her arms.

"But she can't just-"

"Let me stop you right there." Zelena interrupted. "Think about this from Regina's point of view. In her mind, she's been a single mother for fourteen years, and now she's finding out that she's raising Henry with a stranger, who just so happens to be his birth mother. She's finding out that a woman she's never met before is one of her best friends. That's a lot to learn in one day. Give her some time to digest."

Emma realised that Zelena had a point and nodded her agreement. "Alright. You're right. I'll give her time."

"Good." Zelena said with approval.

"But I will make her remember me." Emma said decisively. "I'm not going to let her shut me out forever."

"Determined. I like it."

Emma didn't even hear Zelena's words. She was already formulating a plan in her head.

"I have to go." Emma said, then walked away without even waiting for Zelena to respond.

"Goodbye. Have a nice day." Zelena said sarcastically with a shake of her head. She looked down at her baby daughter, who was making baby noises at her. "What are they like, eh?"

* * *

 **A/N: This is the second time I've written this chapter, and I'm still not happy with it, but I wanted to post it anyway so I could work on the next one (which will hopefully be better). Also, I said that this fic would be four chapters long, but it will probably be closer to six. I hope you decide to stick around until then :)**


	4. Chapter 4

Regina had never been a day drinker. She often allowed herself to have a glass of wine or apple cider in the evenings, but never a drop of alcohol before 5pm. It was a rule of hers that she stuck to as if it were the law.

But today was no ordinary day. Today, a blonde bombshell had been dropped on her, in every sense of the word. Not only was Emma Swan's arrival unexpected and shocking, but Emma was also an incredibly attractive woman, so the term 'blonde bombshell' fit her quite nicely. But yes, today was no ordinary day, so today Regina found herself pouring a glass of apple cider just shy of 3pm.

 _Some people say that rules are made to be broken,_ Regina justified as she took her first sip.

She sat down on the couch in her study with a heavy sigh. It had been a _long_ day, and it still wasn't over yet. She was exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to go to bed, turn her brain off and sleep, though she knew that that would be near impossible. Her mind was spinning with so many thoughts and unanswered questions that she knew she wouldn't be able to shut it off long enough to squeeze in a nap.

Regina didn't know how to feel about the fact that she actually knew Emma. She had no recollection of the blonde, though she guessed that just meant that the potion did its job right. Still, it was the strangest feeling to have all memories of something completely wiped. Was this how everyone in Storybrooke felt during the curse?

How was it possible that she really knew Emma Swan? That she was raising her son with Emma Swan? Why had she agreed to that? Right now, she couldn't imagine letting Henry's birth mother have a place in his life. What if she tried to steal him? Though, apparently, Regina had agreed to it. She just didn't understand why.

She also didn't understand why she had hired Emma as the sheriff. That's what she'd done, right? Because Emma said she was the sheriff, but Regina was mayor which meant that she hired the sheriffs of Storybrooke. Why would she hire someone who was a threat to her and her son? It didn't make sense.

But Emma also said that they were friends, which was probably the strangest part in all of this. Why would Regina have befriended the person who could take her son from her? Why would she befriend the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming? Or course, now she didn't mind Snow and David, but Emma apparently came before the curse broke, which was when Regina still very much detested them.

None of this made sense!

Regina took another sip of her drink and closed her eyes. She could feel a headache coming on.

At that moment, she heard the front door open and close, then a familiar voice call out: "Mom! I'm home!" The sound of her son brought a small smile to her face, despite everything else that was going on.

Regina opened her eyes and turned to the doorway, just in time to see Henry appearing. "Hi, honey. Did you have a nice time with Violet?"

"Yeah, it was awesome." Henry said with a grin. "Violet got a phone for Christmas, so she's been downloading music ever since. Today, I introduced her to _twenty one pilots."_

"That's lovely, dear." Regina smiled. She didn't know who on earth those twenty one pilots were, but she was also too tired to question it.

"Yeah, but she didn't like them as much as she likes Taylor Swift." Henry said with an eye roll.

Taylor Swift, Regina knew. She had a song about shaking it off. When it came out, it had been on the radio so much that it made Regina want to tear her ears off. Instead of saying that though, Regina just lifted a shoulder and said, "Each to their own."

"I guess." Henry conceded, then looked down and saw the glass of cider in Regina's hand. The sight brought a frown to his face. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Regina replied, trying to sound a normal as possible. She had to sound upbeat, but she couldn't overshoot or Henry would know that something was wrong.

"I don't know." Henry said, looking at her analytically. "You've got a drink."

"It's New Year. I'm celebrating." Regina lied.

"Alright." Henry nodded, though still didn't seem too convinced. "I'm going to take my things upstairs."

Regina nodded and watched Henry walk away, then she closed her eyes and listened. She heard her son's footsteps go up the stairs, then some banging and shuffling from his room. Then footsteps came back down the stairs, then the fridge door opened and closed. Regina heard more movement, though it was hard to tell the exact location because Henry had taken his shoes off. But then she heard him walk back into the room, so she opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Does Ma know that she left her jacket here?" Henry asked, holding up what appeared to be a red leather jacket.

"Who left their jacket here?" Regina asked with a frown, leaning forward to get a better look at it.

Henry looked at her as if she were insane, then looked it the jacket in his hand, then back to Regina again. The question seemed to perplex him for some reason, which confused Regina. "Ma..." Henry said, as if it were obvious. "Emma."

Regina sighed as she realised that it was Emma Swan's jacket. Honestly, it seemed like she couldn't escape the blonde today. "Oh," Regina said, leaning back again. "I don't think she knows."

"Maybe you can take it to her the next time you see her." Henry suggested, then threw the jacket onto the couch next to Regina.

"That's... an idea." Regina nodded. "Or maybe you could."

Henry frowned, confusion written all over his features. "Ok... Are you sure that you're OK? How much have you had to drink?"

"I'm fine, Henry." Regina insisted. "And this is my first one."

Henry lingered for a few moments, just to look at Regina like she was losing her mind, then he retreated from the room.

Regina looked across at the red leather jacket that he had tossed next to her, then found herself reaching for it. She didn't know why, but she picked it up anyway and put it in her lap. It was obviously well-worn; it was a bit dirty and the seem was slightly torn on the sleeve. Was she supposed to recognise it? Is that why Henry had looked at her like she was insane? If she _was_ supposed to have seen it before, then that was a shame, because there was no recognition when she looked at it.

Regina ran her fingers over the material, then lifted it and brought it to her face. She didn't know what she was doing, but something compelled her to do it. She put the jacket against her nose and then breathed deeply, inhaling the scent. She could smell vanilla, and slight sweat. The sweat made her wrinkle her nose, but the overall scent wasn't entirely displeasing.

Upon hearing Henry coming towards the room again, Regina put the jacket back down and sipped her drink.

"Mom," Henry said as he appeared in the doorway, yet again. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why did you leave Granny's so suddenly last night?" Henry leaned against the door frame and looked at Regina curiously. "I didn't even see you leave. One minute you were there, the next you were gone. You didn't even say goodbye to anyone."

Regina opened her mouth, but then closed it again, not knowing how to answer the question. She could hardly tell her son that she had rushed to her vault to create a potion that would make her forget her true love, but had instead made her forget his other mother. She didn't know how Henry would react to such news, and was hoping that she wouldn't have to be the one to tell him.

Luckily, the house phone rang at that moment, gaining the attention of Henry. _Saved by the bell,_ Regina thought to herself as Henry backed out of the room in search of the device.

However, as one pesky person asking too many questions left (not that Regina thought of Henry as pesky. She just didn't want to answer his questions right now.), another one entered in the form of Zelena.

Regina heard the front door open and close, then sighed, tipping her head back to down the rest of her drink. She knew that her sister was going to ask her questions, but she really just wanted to be left alone right now. Unfortunately, the universe seemed to have other plans.

Regina stood and walked over to her desk, putting her empty glass down. She considered pouring another, but then Zelena knocked on the door and walked in.

"Hey, sis." The redhead said, using a sympathetic tone of voice that Regina really didn't want to hear. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine." Regina said, through gritted teeth this time. She had already assured Henry that she was OK, and she was quickly losing her patience now.

"Well, excuse me for not believing that." Zelena said, making Regina turn to face her with a scowl. "You hurried out of the diner pretty quickly, and now you sound like you want to strangle someone."

"Not someone," Regina corrected. "Just you. Or perhaps Emma Swan would suffice."

Zelena feigned a look of offence. "Me? What did I do?"

"You let me ramble on about how Ms. Swan was insane for acting like she knew me, when you knew full well that I do, in fact, know her!"

An amused smile spread across Zelena's face. "Well, yes, I did do that. But you have to admit, it was pretty funny."

"Forgive me for not agreeing." Regina responded with an eye roll. She walked away from her desk, back over to the couch, and watched as Zelena rocked the baby stroller with Robyn in it back and forth.

The room was silent for a few moments, other than the sound of Robyn stirring slightly, but Regina decided to break it with the thing that she had been thinking ever since she left the diner. "I didn't mess up the potion."

"What?" Zelena turned to look at her sister.

"When it comes to magic, I don't make mistakes." Regina said, standing back up and walking back over to where her empty glass and almost-full bottle of cider was. To hell with it, she was having another drink. "I made a potion to forget my true love, and that's exactly what I did."

"You know?" Zelena asked, surprise in her voice.

Regina filled her glass, then picked it up and turned back to her sister. "I do now." She confirmed. "I didn't this morning, after taking the potion and still remembering Robin. I just thought that I must have made a mistake somewhere, forgotten an ingredient or something. But even that didn't make sense to me, because I took the recipe from a book, and followed it precisely. Then, when Emma showed up on my doorstep... I just can't believe that I didn't connect the dots. I thought that it was strange that a woman that I didn't know was insisting that she knew me, but I can't believe I didn't make the link to the forgetting potion I'd taken."

"But now you know that the potion made you forget Emma." Zelena stated.

"Yes. But Ms. Swan told me that I forgot her because I messed up the potion, and I know that I didn't do that. Forgetting to put in an ingredient would make the potion ineffective, but it wouldn't change the outcome of the potion."

"What are you saying?" Zelena asked, thinking that she knew, but wanting to hear it from Regina.

"I'm saying that the forgetting potion worked. I forgot my true love. I forgot Emma Swan."

Zelena grinned and clapped her hands together. "It's about time one of you fools figured it out." She said, as if she had been waiting for this moment forever. "I was starting to worry that the two of you would dance around it for years. Especially the way Emma was going." Zelena breathed a sigh of relief, but then seemed to remember something and frowned at Regina. "Hold on, what are you waiting for? Why aren't you at Emma's place getting your happy ending?"

Regina drank a large mouthful of cider and leaned back against her desk. "She isn't my happy ending."

Zelena frowned even more, taking her hands off Robyn's stroller to fold her arms across her chest. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't love that woman."

"But she's your-"

"True love?" Regina finished, then laughed dryly. "I know. You don't need to remind me. It's just another one of the universe's cruel jokes."

"Regina-"

"Genius, really." Regina continued, ignoring her sister. "Making my true love someone who, not only is unattainable, but is also someone that I detest. What a way to hurt me even more."

"I don't understand." Zelena said in confusion.

Regina sighed, as if having to explain was an inconvenience. "She's unattainable because she's dating Hook." Regina reminded Zelena.

"That's not the part that I'm confused about. You just said that you detest her."

"Oh," Regina nodded and sipped more cider. "I do. I hate her."

"How can you say that?"

"Because she's loud and obnoxious." Regina said, as if it were obvious. "She stormed into my house, she tracked me down at Granny's, she grabbed my wrist and _forced_ me to talk to her."

"That's just..." Zelena didn't know how to explain, so she shook her head and sighed. "That's just who Emma is. She's strong and stubborn."

"Well I don't appreciate it." Regina said. "And I also hate her because she was hurting me enough to make me take a potion to forget my true love."

"Emma didn't do that." Zelena reminded Regina. "You took that potion to forget Robin, not Emma."

"Yes, but I feel fine now." Regina informed her sister. "That pain that I had in my chest for so long? Completely gone. Taking Emma out of my life, also took the pain away. She used to be the cause of the pain in my life, now she's just a pain in my ass."

Zelena walked towards Regina, hoping that reducing the distance between them would make Regina listen to her and see sense. "You were probably only hurt because Emma was with Hook. You didn't realise that you loved her back then, but seeing with someone else was still hard for you. Either that, or you were hurt because you knew your love was unrequited, which you now know isn't true because _you're_ her true love, not Killian. But Emma would never intentionally hurt you. Trust me."

"I don't care why I was hurt." Regina insisted. "All I know is that Emma Swan is the one who was hurting me, so why wouldn't I hate her?"

"Because she's your true love." Zelena stated.

"But I don't want her to be." Regina insisted. "I don't want her in my life at all."

"Regina, don't do this." Zelena folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. "Don't throw away your happy ending like this. You have the chance to be happy right now. Take it."

"Zelena, I don't even _like_ her-"

"But you did when you knew her! Before you took that potion, she was your best friend."

"But now I can see clearly, and I know-"

"No, you can't." Zelena wouldn't even let Regina complete her sentence. "This is the complete opposite of seeing things clearly. That potion has fogged up your mind. You don't know anything, so you're jumping to conclusions, the _wrong_ conclusions."

"You're not going to make me change my mind, Zelena." Regina said stubbornly. "I don't want anything to do with her. I will let her see Henry, because she's apparently as much his mother as I am, but that is where our relationship starts and ends."

Zelena narrowed her eyes at her sister. "You're making a mistake."

"Well, it's my mistake to make."

The women looked each other in the eye for a few moments, as if they were having a stand-off. Neither wanted to be the one to look away first, as if doing so would be a sign of defeat. However, they both looked away at the same time when a sound caught their attention.

"Mom!" Henry yelled, making both women turn the the door. Henry's footsteps bounded down the stairs, then the young man stormed into the room, looking at Regina accusingly. "Are you and Emma fighting?" He demanded, clearly angry.

"What makes you ask that?" Regina asked, glancing momentarily at Zelena, who looked equally unsure.

"Because she was the one on the phone." Henry explained. "She told me that she doesn't think I should spend the night at her place tonight."

"Why would she say that?" Regina frowned. Emma had demanded that Henry spend the night with her, stressing that he was her son too. Now she was just giving him up?

"She wouldn't tell me." Henry said, narrowing his eyes at his brunette mother. "She just said that she doesn't think that you would like it if I did."

"Why would she care if I was happy or not?" Regina asked, directing it at Zelena.

"What _I_ want to know is why wouldn't you be happy? You've not had a problem with me staying at Emma's for ages."

To answer that question, Regina would have to explain to him what had happened, and Regina didn't have any desire to do that. She looked down, refusing to answer, which just annoyed Henry more.

"What have you done?" Henry asked. "Things were going great, why did you have to ruin it?"

"Henry-"

"Whatever you said to Emma, you need to apologise. Or, if Emma's the one in the wrong, forgive her." Henry instructed. "She sounded upset on the phone, so whatever has happened, it's hurt her."

"Of course." Regina looked down and laughed, though it held little amusement. "She's made herself out to be the victim here. And made herself seem like the hero by saying that she doesn't have to see you if it will upset me."

"Stop it." Henry pleaded. "Stop talking about Emma like she's self-serving. I don't want you two to hate each other again. It was bad enough last time. I just want to know why Emma has said she's going to keep her distance from me for the time being."

"So do I." Regina said thoughtfully. "I'm going to go find out." She put down her glass and pushed herself off the desk.

"Wait, you're going to see Emma?" Zelena asked to clarify.

"Yes. I'm finding out what she's up to." Regina said decisively, picking her bag up from where she'd left it on the floor by the couch.

"Can you at least tell me what's happened first?" Henry asked.

"I..." Regina hesitated, then turned to Zelena. "Will you explain to him what happened?"

Zelena raised an eyebrow and looked at Henry, who looked back at her with puppy-dog eyes. Zelena sighed and walked over to the couch, patting the spot next to her. "Sit down, Hen. It's story time."

Henry smiled and went to sit next to his auntie, so Regina made sure she had her phone and keys, then walked out of the study. She didn't make it far before she turned back and poked her head inside

"Zelena, don't say anything that I wouldn't." Regina warned her sister.

Zelena rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a bore, Gina. Just go see your soulmate."

"Her _what_?" Henry asked, his eyes widening as he turned to the redhead in shock.

Zelena put her hand on his knee with a smile. "Once upon a time..."

* * *

 **A/N: Two steps forward, one step back.**

 **Thank you to everyone who has shown their support for this story, I really appreciate it. And reviews always bring a smile to my face :)**

 **I've now given up trying to predict how many chapters this fic will be, because I keep on extending it. I'll just let you know when it's the penultimate chapter, and hope you stick around until then :)**

 **I promise that Emma and Regina will actually interact in the next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

After leaving Granny's, Emma had been left with a monumental task: finding a way to make Regina remember her.

At first, she had headed towards Gold's Pawn Shop, because who better to go to for advice on magic than Rumpelstiltskin himself? However, she had only made it halfway before she stopped in her tracks. Gold was obnoxious and conniving on the best of days, without even getting started on the whole ' _all magic comes with a price_ ' crap. Maybe he should be a last resort, and Emma had plenty of other options to exhaust before she was left with him.

So, Emma had headed towards the library, figuring there might be some magic books there that she could browse through. This time, she made it to her destination, and even found a couple of dusty books tucked away in the corner of the room. But then she had discovered that they were written in Elfish which, alas, she didn't speak.

Leaving the library, she had set off in the direction of her house, telling herself that she needed to think. She needed to formulate a proper plan and then go from there.

Emma stopped walking, yet again. Maybe her house wasn't the best place to go, after all. Killian might be there, wanting answers about what was going on, and giving him a debrief wasn't exactly Emma's priority at the moment.

So Emma veered off course and went to the park instead, and ended up on a bench overlooking the duck pond.

As soon as her butt hit the seat, the events of the day seemed to catch up with her and she was suddenly exhausted. She closed her eyes and let her head fall backwards, releasing a long breath.

It was hard to believe that, last night, everything had been perfectly ordinary (by Storybrooke's standards, anyway) and now, everything had gone to crap. Emma snorted to herself. Why was she even surprised? It was just a typical day in the life of a citizen of Storybrooke.

Regina was Emma's best friend. She was the person who Emma trusted most in the world; the only person who Emma felt she had a real connection with because they had both been through so much in life; the only person just as damaged as she was... and now she had no clue who Emma was. Of all people that the universe could take from her, Regina was among the worst.

All Emma could think about was how Regina had treated her today, and how it reminded her of when she had just arrived in Storybrooke. Back then, Regina had looked at her with nothing but contempt, and sometimes a little fear whenever there was a possibility that Emma would pose a threat to her relationship with Henry. That look had returned today, and it made Emma's blood run cold. And then there was the term that, out of anybody else's mouth would be completely innocent, but somehow it was scathing when Regina said it: Miss Swan.

Hearing that formal title spoken by Regina was proof that all the progress they had made over the years had been scrubbed away all at once. The time and effort it had taken for them to go from enemies to reluctant allies to apprehensive co-parents to kinda-friends to _real_ friends to _best friends_... it had all been for nothing, vanished in an instant. And all because of some stupid potion.

Emma felt like an idiot for not even knowing that Regina was planning to take a potion to forget Robin Hood. Regina had never mentioned it - had never even mentioned that she was so hurt by his loss that she would consider doing such a thing.

Maybe they weren't such good friends after all...

No. That was ridiculous. Emma and Regina had gone through a lot together, had been to hell and back - literally. It was impossible that they wouldn't have developed a deep connection because of it.

A connection that had been severed because Regina had messed up that damn potion.

Emma shook her head and rubbed her face, feeling stressed and tired and wanting nothing more than for this whole situation to go away. Or, at the very least, that she could go home and take a nap.

It was then that Emma remembered that it was her night to have Henry. She had practically demanded that she would see him tonight when she had been speaking to Regina in Granny's earlier. Regina had looked like there was nothing she wanted less than for Emma to be anywhere near her son, but had been forced to agree when Zelena admitted that Emma had every right to see him.

Emma could still picture the look on Regina's face: anger mixed with fear and apprehension. She had only seen it for a moment because Regina had quickly neutralised her expression, ever the professional, but she had still seen it and it made Emma's heart clench.

Of course Regina was scared. As far as she knew, she had been a single mother for fifteen years and now a stranger, her son's birth mother, was here demanding to share custody. Emma would be terrified too.

But she didn't want Regina to feel that way. She cared immensely about her and the thought of her being so distressed because of Emma made Emma feel guilty and horrible. Emma needed to be more sympathetic towards her. None of this was Regina's fault (actually, it kinda was), so Emma just needed to focus on _not_ giving Regina a nervous breakdown until they had sorted this huge mess out and found a way for Regina to remember her.

With no hesitation, Emma pulled out her cell phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found the mansion's home phone number, then dialled it.

It took about three rings for Henry to pick up.

 _"Hello?"_

"Hey, kid."

 _"Oh, hey, Ma."_ Henry sounded happy to hear it was her, which made Emma feel horrible about what she was going to say. _"I was just about to pack my overnight bag. Which movie should I bring? Indiana Jones or Suicide Squad?"_

"Oh, come on, kid. Me and your mom raised you better than this. Have you even gotta ask?" Emma replied, momentarily forgetting that she had called to tell Henry that he wouldn't be spending the night at her house, and instead focusing on the incredibly stupid question he had just asked.

 _"Indiana Jones? I figured as much."_ Henry replied, and Emma swore she could hear the shuffling of DVDs from over the phone. _"Anyway, what's up?"_

Oh. Yeah. Emma had called for a reason.

"Yeah, uh..." Emma scratched the back of her neck. "I was thinking that, maybe, you shouldn't come to my place tonight."

There was a pause before Emma heard Henry again, his voice sounding confused. _"What? Why?"_

"It just... it just wouldn't be best right now."

" _I don't understand."_

Emma sighed and began to play with the zip of her jacket. "Your mom is going through some stuff at the moment and I think it would be better if you stayed there with her."

There was another pause at the other end of the line, then when Henry spoke again, he sounded accusing. _"Have you guys had a fight?"_

"Henry..."

 _"Has she told you that you're not allowed to see me?"_

"That's not-"

 _"She has hasn't she?_ " Henry sounded frustrated. _"God, why do you two do this? One second everything's fine between you and then the next you hate each other! And I'm always caught in the middle!"_

"Henry, listen to me. Your mom hasn't-"

 _"She has no right to keep me away from you."_

"And she isn't." Emma said, keeping her voice calm. "This is my decision, not Regina's."

 _"But why wouldn't you want to see me?" Henry sounded hurt now, and it broke Emma's heart._

"Maybe you should speak to your mom about it."

 _There was a brief moment of silence before Henry spoke, his voice determined. "Maybe I will."_

At that, he hung up the phone. Emma closed her eyes and sighed. That could have gone better. But Henry was right, whenever Emma and Regina were going through something, Henry always ended up in the middle. This latest drama didn't only affect them; he was involved too and it would hurt him just as much as it hurt them. They needed to get this sorted as soon as possible so that they could all go back to how things were, when they were all happy.

Well... clearly Regina wasn't happy, hence she felt the need to take a forgetting potion, but Emma would tackle one problem at a time: first of all, she needed to get Regina to remember her, and then she would find a way to make Regina happy again.

With more determination than ever, Emma stood up and strode back towards Main Street. She knew just who she needed to speak to.

* * *

"Mom! Dad!"

Emma burst into the loft, without even knocking on the door. Her parents, who were sitting on the couch, were visibly startled by her abrupt entrance, but seemed to relax once they saw that it was just Emma.

"Hi, honey. Did you find out what's going on with Regina?" Mary Margaret asked in a voice that was incredibly calm for a mother whose daughter had just crashed through the door and was now standing in the middle of the room panting.

"Yeah," Emma waved a hand dismissively. God, they were so far behind with the events of today. "She took a forgetting potion. You've taken one before, right?" Emma said to her mother.

"Well," Mary Margaret glanced at David and then leaned forwards, clearly intrigued by what Emma had said. "Yes, I did, a long time ago. But why would Regina want to take one?"

"To forget Robin." Emma answered simply, not having time to explain the whole situation. "She wanted to forget her true love, but forgot me instead. How did you reverse the effects of the potion?"

"True Love's Kiss." Mary Margaret said. "But why would Regina want to forget Robin?"

They were practically having two conversations: Emma wanting answers about how to reverse the potion, and Mary Margaret wanting answers about why Regina had taken it in the first place.

Unfortunately, Emma's line of questioning came to an end when she realised that True Love's Kiss was needed.

"Well, that's not helpful." Emma flopped down into the armchair across from her parents. "Regina's True Love is dead."

"Woah, woah, woah." David also leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his legs. "Back up a bit. What's happened?"

Emma sighed, as though informing them was a major inconvenience. "Regina wanted to forget Robin Hood because she was missing him too much, so she created a potion to make her forget her true love. She must have messed it up though because she forgot me instead, which is why she was acting like she had no clue who I was this morning. I was hoping that you guys would know how I could reverse the potion, but clearly not."

David and Mary Margaret glanced at each other before David said. "Messing up a potion? That doesn't sound like Regina."

"I don't care how out-of-character it sounds," Emma grumbled with an eye roll. "That's what happened."

"Well," Mary Margaret started. "In this town, we usually break curses and potions with True Love's Kiss."

"But Regina's True Love is dead, remember?" Emma said slowly, as if speaking to a child. "Robin Hood was killed by Hades."

Mary Margaret and David glanced at each other again, but Emma didn't see it because she covered her eyes with her hand.

"There must be another way to make her remember me."

"I'm sure you'll think of something." Mary Margaret assured her daughter, then leaned back at the exact same time that David did.

Emma uncovered her eyes and looked at her parents, who seemed way too relaxed about this whole thing. "Aren't you at all concerned that Regina, my best friend and the mother of my son, doesn't know who I am?"

"Of course we're concerned." David replied. "But what do you want us to do?"

"Erm, help me, maybe?" Emma said, as if it were obvious.

"All we have to say on the matter is that True Love's Kiss is usually what breaks curses and potions, and that we're sure you'll find a way to make Regina remember you." Mary Margaret said, then stood up. "Now, who wants tea?"

After David indicated that he would love some tea, Mary Margaret headed into the kitchen. Emma frowned and stood up, following her mother across the room.

"Aren't you listening to me? Regina's True Love is dead, which means True Love's Kiss is not going to solve this problem."

"Isn't it?" Mary Margaret said, not looking at Emma while she poured water into the kettle.

Emma looked in disbelief at David, then turned back to her mother. "No, it isn't, so I need to find an alternative way. Aren't you going to help me?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something, honey."

Emma was in total shock at this point. Regina had taken a forgetting potion and didn't know who she was anymore, but her parents couldn't care less! Come to think of it, Zelena had had a similar unconcerned approach, though that could be expected of the Wicked Witch of the West. But her parents... they should care, right?

Was Emma the only sane one here?

"How am I supposed to think of something? I was kind of relying on your help, here. Maybe I should just go and speak to Gold."

"No, I don't think that's necessary just yet." Mary Margaret dismissed. "At least sleep on it first."

"But-"

"Emma, stop worrying. Everything will work itself out in the end."

Emma frowned, really not understanding her parents' reaction to this. "How can you be so sure?"

"It always has in the past, hasn't it?"

Well, Emma couldn't argue with that. "I guess... but I don't want to just sit here and wait for things to work themselves out. Regina hates me right now, and I've just had to tell my son that it might be better if we don't see each other for the time being. Two of the most important people in my life have been torn away from me over this stupid potion. I want to find a solution ASAP, not just sit here hoping that things will solve themselves."

That was when Mary Margaret actually looked sympathetic towards Emma for the first time since she got to the loft. She put her hand of Emma's arm and stroked it comfortingly. "I know that it's hard, but you just have to remember that things will get better soon. Regina will remember you and everything will be fine. Things may be torturous until that happens, but it _will_ happen."

Emma smiled slightly, finding hope in the fact that her mother had so much faith.

"Now," Mary Margaret said in a lighter tone. "Do you want some tea or not?"

* * *

It was only when Regina had gotten into her car and driven to the end of Mifflin Street that she realised she had no clue where Emma Swan lived.

She drove down various streets, with no clue where she was going or even what she was looking for. Eventually, she turned towards Mary Margaret and David Nolan's house. If everything that Emma had said was true then Snow and David were Emma's parents, so they must know where Regina could find Emma.

She parked her car outside the loft, behind the most atrocious yellow bug she had ever seen. She got out of her car and walked through the doors, casting the Volkswagen a glance of disgust on her way past for good measure, then walked up the stairs and knocked on the door.

She heard voices from inside the loft, but was still left standing there for a good minute before the door was pulled open by none other than Emma Swan herself.

"Regina." Emma said, shock in her voice.

"You're here." Regina stated dumbly, surprised to see the blonde. Emma looked confused by the observation, so Regina expanded. "I wanted to speak to you so I came here to get your address. I didn't know that you'd actually be here."

"You wanted to speak to me?" Was the only thing Emma focused on.

"Who's at the-" Mary Margaret's voice sounded from inside the loft, then she came into view behind Emma. "Oh, hello, Regina. How can I help you?"

"I'm here to speak to Miss Swan, actually." Regina saw Emma close her eyes for a second, but didn't know what was wrong with the blonde.

"Oh, really?" Mary Margaret seemed intrigued, but still backed away. "I'll leave you two to it then."

Emma watched her mother walk away, then indicated for Regina to back up so that she could step outside. Regina did so, walking to the other side of the small hall, then turning back while Emma closed the door behind herself.

"What's up?" Emma asked curiously.

"What the hell are you doing?" Regina demanded, folding her arms across her chest.

"What do you-"

"One minute you're yelling at me about how you have every right to see Henry, and the next you're saying that you don't want to see him after all."

"I never yelled."

Regina narrowed her eyes because _really? That_ was what the other woman focused on. "Miss Swan-"

"And this isn't about whether or not I _want_ to see Henry."

"Then what, pray tell, is it about?"

Emma sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "You know something, Regina? You're kinda a hypocrite. You've come all the way over here to ask me why I've changed my mind, yet you didn't want me to see Henry, anyway. Shouldn't you be happy that I've said he can stay with you?"

"Oh, I'm thrilled that I don't have to send my son away with some deranged moron," Regina informed the blonde. "I just think you have an ulterior motive and I want to know what it is."

"There is no motive." Emma insisted.

"Oh, really? Why do I find that so hard to believe?"

"Because you don't know me. If you did then you would know that I have no self-serving motive."

"You know what I think, Miss Swan? I think that you're arrogant. I can see it in the way that you carry yourself and I can see it in the way you treat me and others. You have the expectation that everyone will love you. You like to play the hero to _make_ everyone love you, but I'm not going to fall for it. I think the only reason that you have said Henry can stay with me is so that you look like the hero _and_ the victim all at the same time. Everyone will think that you're so selfless, letting me look after my own son, and everyone will pity you because you don't get to see him. It's pathetic."

"Oh, come on, Regina. That's not what-"

"I can only be grateful that my son hasn't inherited your selfish, self-centred attitude to-"

"Stop!" Emma held up a hand to interrupt. "Can't you see that none of this is about me? This isn't about me looking like a hero, this is about you! It's about how uncomfortable you would have been if Henry had come to my house tonight. It's about how you would have spent the whole time worrying about him and hating yourself for leaving him in the hands of a stranger. It's about how you would have been worried that I was stealing him away from you. And I know that that's how you would have felt because I've already seen it, when I first came to Storybrooke and started building a relationship with Henry. You don't remember it, you don't remember what I put you through, but I do and I don't want to put you through any more pain. So if that means that Henry stays with you until we find a way to reverse the forgetting potion, then so be it."

Regina's lips pulled into a satisfied smile, although she didn't particularly want to have been right about this. "See?" She said, pushing past the slight wobble in her voice. "You just proved that it _is_ all about you."

Emma frowned, her whole face confused and disbelieving. "What?"

"All you want to do is reverse this forgetting potion. You either don't seem to understand, or don't seem to care, that I don't want it to be reversed."

"Regina-"

"I was hurt enough to want to take a forgetting potion," Regina continued. "But ever since I forgot you, I haven't been in half as much emotional pain as I was before."

Emma frowned and shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Doesn't it?" Regina questioned. "You just said yourself that you put me through a lot when you first arrived in Storybrooke."

"Well, yeah, but that was when we were enemies. We're friends now, _best_ friends, and we care about each other. I would never hurt you."

"Have you ever considered that it was all an act?" Regina said contemplatively, making Emma narrow her eyes in question. "Perhaps I led you to believe that we were friends. Perhaps I led you to believe that I had forgiven you. But, in reality, perhaps it was a lie. What's that saying? Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

Emma shook her head, but Regina could see on her face that she was thinking about it, that she wasn't so sure that Regina was wrong. "That's not true."

"Well, I suppose we'll never know." Regina said with a casual shrug. "Anyway, I should be going. I'm sure you have a lot to think about."

Regina took a second to look at Emma and try to figure out what she was thinking, but the blonde was staring at the floor with an unreadable expression.

Regina turned on her heel and walked down the stairs, the staccato clicking of her heels filling the hall. She didn't hear Emma move, but didn't turn back to check if she was still standing in the same spot.

As Regina stepped through the doors and into the cold air of Storybrooke, she didn't know why she felt so guilty. She hated Emma, so the shaken look on the blonde's face should have been satisfying.

But, hearing Emma say that she had distanced herself from Henry for Regina, because the thought of Regina being hurt because of her was too hard for her to consider... Regina had wanted to believe that, even if only for a fraction of a second. Wasn't that what everyone wanted? To find someone who cared about you enough to do selfless acts like giving up their time with their child, even if it would hurt them, to make you happy?

That was the kind of True Love that Regina wanted.

Not someone as selfish as Emma Swan, who only did those 'selfless' acts to look like a hero. And certainly not someone who had hurt Regina so much in the past, and had apparently still been hurting her up until yesterday.

Regina wished that she could take another potion to forget Emma Swan, but she knew that it would be futile. Thanks to the fact that they shared a son, they would be connected for life. No number of forgetting potions could change that.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm back!**

 **Coming back to this story after so long was hard because I wasn't in the mindset anymore, but I hope you were satisfied with this chapter. I'm hoping to get this story finished, so updates will be more regular until that's been done - I hope at least once a week. I still don't know how long this fic will be, my muse is sort of leading the way and I'm just following behind.**

 **Also, for anyone who reads my other stories: they will be updated soon, too. I'm not planning on abandoning any of my stories, I just need time to get around to them :)**

 **Thanks for reading, and reviews are always appreciated.**


	6. Chapter 6

Emma wasn't much of a crier - had never been much of a crier. Yet when she walked back into the loft after speaking to Regina, it was with pesky tears in her eyes.

Was it true? Had Regina been pretending to like her, pretending to be her friend, just as some sort of revenge plot? If Emma had been asked that question a couple of days ago, she would have been certain that it wasn't true. Yet after speaking to Regina just then, hearing Regina say that she was better off not knowing about Emma or everything they had been through together, she suddenly wasn't so sure.

And it broke her heart. It broke her heart that someone who she liked, respected and bonded with so much might not think fondly of her, after all.

Part of her was telling herself not to listen to what Regina had said; that Regina was only saying it because of the potion. But the foster-kid with a fear of rejection inside her couldn't help but believe the words wholeheartedly.

"So? How did it go with Regina?" Mary Margaret asked, appearing from nowhere. Her tone of voice was slightly excited, like she expected good news from Emma. But what good news could Emma possibly have? Then Mary Margaret seemed to notice the tears in Emma's eyes and her face changed into concern. "Oh no. What happened?"

Emma swiped at her eyes, frustrated at herself for showing her emotions. "Regina hates me. She might always have hated me. She doesn't want to remember me."

Mary Margaret frowned and walked towards Emma. "Breathe." She instructed, trying to soothe Emma, whose breathing was getting more rapid as she choked back sobs. "Talk me through what happened."

Emma shook her head. She didn't want this. She didn't want Mary Margaret's pity or motherly concern. All she wanted was to go home and forget about this day with a glass (or bottle) of whiskey.

So, she turned and pulled herself away from her mother, then left the loft before anyone could see her tears fall.

* * *

 _Damn you, Emma Swan._

Regina found herself thinking that quite a lot in the week that followed her discussion with the blonde.

The problem was, even though Emma was supposed to be keeping her distance from Henry for a while, she had still managed to drive a wedge between Regina and her son, even if it was unintentional.

It started when Regina got home from speaking to the blonde at the loft. She had completely forgotten that she had told Zelena to tell Henry about the forgetting potion, but she was reminded as soon as she walked through the door and was greeted by a very excitable fifteen year old.

"So? What happened? What did you say to her? Did you kiss her? Do you remember her yet?"

Regina looked blankly at Henry for a moment, then turned and shouted, "Zelena!"

Moments later, the red-head appeared in the kitchen doorway, a baby in her arms and a smirk on her face. "Oh, hey, sis."

"What did you say to Henry?"

"The truth," Zelena said, looking offended at the suggestion that she would do anything else. "That his moms are soulmates - True Loves."

Regina rolled her eyes but looked back at her hopeful son. "No, I didn't kiss Miss Swan, nor will I ever."

Henry looked baffled by this information. "What? But she's your True Love."

"Only in title, I can assure you." Regina told him. "I don't love that woman. In fact, I detest her at this moment. But that doesn't matter. It won't affect you, you'll still get to see us both, we just won't see each other." Regina smiled at her son, trying to show him everything would be OK.

But Henry frowned, his face looking angry and hurt. "You don't hate Emma. You didn't hate her before you took that stupid potion, and you don't now."

"I'm beginning to think that I might have disliked her all along." Regina admitted. "Whatever was weighing down on me before I took that potion has gone now. It left along with my memories of Emma."

"No." Henry shook his head adamantly. "You just don't remember that you like her. It's like someone's hit the reset button in your brain and, for some reason, hatred has always been your default setting when it comes to Emma."

"And what does that tell you about my true feelings towards her?"

Henry looked at Regina defiantly. "That there's a fine line between love and hate."

Regina didn't replied with words. She just gave him a sympathetic look because he was so hopeful and she knew that he had set himself up for disappointment. Already, all of his excitement from when Regina had walked through the door had fizzled out.

In the end, Henry turned and stormed up stairs, slamming his bedroom door behind him for good measure.

Ever since that conversation, their relationship had been strained. He had barely spoken to her, and when he did it was to give one-worded answers to her questions with a sulky look on his face.

It seemed that he blamed her for this whole thing. He blamed her for taking the potion in the first place, he blamed her for not accepting that Emma was her soulmate, he blamed her for not giving his birth mother a chance. He refused to listen to Regina whenever she tried to tell him that she just didn't _like_ Emma Swan, and that disliking people was a part of life.

There was one morning where he had spent a good half an hour telling Regina that she and Emma were perfect soulmates and how he felt stupid that he hadn't realised sooner. _The Evil Queen and the Saviour? Of course! It's the perfect fairy tale!_

Regina had had to tiredly remind him that they weren't soulmates, that they would never be a couple and that he should stop obsessing before it became unhealthy. After that, Henry had gone back to avoiding her.

 _Yes. Damn you, Emma Swan._

But then, when Saturday rolled around, Henry came downstairs looking happier than he had all week. He even said 'thank you' when Regina placed an omelette in front of him, instead of the noncommittal grumble she'd gotten for the last few days. It gave Regina hope that maybe Henry was forgiving her.

And then he burst her bubble.

"Ma's picking me up in an hour."

"Who is?" Regina asked while she scrubbed at a pan in the sink. Hearing Henry say 'Ma' was still foreign to her, especially when it was being used to refer to another woman. He had always called her 'mom', and up until a week ago, Regina had been his only mother (in her mind, at least).

That didn't stop Henry from sounding mildly frustrated when he said, "Emma," As though having to remind Regina about the other woman was something to get annoyed about.

Regina put the pan down and turned to face her son. "Emma's picking you up today?" She clarified, because she hadn't heard from the blonde all week so this was coming somewhat out of the blue.

"Yeah," Henry stared down at his omelette instead of looking at her. "I usually spend weekends with her, anyway, but she called me earlier and said that she misses me. She hasn't seen me all week, and she usually sees me most days, so..." Henry finished his sentence with a shrug. "She's going to pick me up and spend the day with me. But don't worry, she's said that I won't be spending the night at her place." The last part was said with such bitterness that Regina knew he still blamed her.

"Well, OK, that's fine." Regina nodded, though could feel an uneasiness within her at the thought of Emma taking her son for the day. "What do you think the two of you will do?"

Henry put down his fork and looked at Regina with an expression that told her that he knew she was uncomfortable with him spending the day with Emma and he wasn't happy about it. "I don't know yet, mom. We might go to Emma's and play video games, we might go out for lunch, we might watch a movie, we might go to the docks, we might just spend the day together and pretend for a while that you _didn't_ take a potion that ruined everything."

Regina looked at Henry in shock for a moment, not knowing where that last part came from or even what it really meant. "How have I ruined everything?" She asked, somewhat defensively.

"Me, you and Emma used to be like a family. We'd have dinner together sometimes and spend days together and just do _family_ things together. Now I feel like I have two divorced parents who can't stand to be in the same room as each other."

"Well, I'm sorry, Henry, but that's just the way things are now. You still have a family and we can still do family things, I'd just prefer it if it didn't involve me and Emma being in the same room."

"This is different," Henry pushed his plate away from himself and looked at Regina. "We were happy _together._ We were all happier together than we are apart, so why should we have to settle for less just because _you_ took a potion that had consequences you didn't foresee? For someone who spent more than three decades holding a grudge against Snow White for destroying your happiness, you sure spend a lot of time destroying your own."

Regina didn't know what to say. She didn't remember ever being a happy little family with Emma Swan, but that didn't mean that it wasn't true. Maybe she and Emma really _did_ do things as a family, even if it was just for Henry, but maybe Regina had been happy too. The annoying thing was Regina had no way of knowing the truth. She had no way of knowing if this potion had made her life better or worse, no way of knowing what her opinion of Emma had been before, and now she just felt confused and frustrated at the same time. What if she was making all three of them - herself, Henry and Emma - less happy just because she was too stubborn to admit that taking the potion was a mistake?

She'd convinced herself that she hated Emma - that she had hated her even before taking the potion - but what Henry was saying completely contradicted that and she didn't know what to believe anymore.

Regina must have been silent for too long because Henry stood up and started to walk out of the room with an exasperated sigh. Regina snapped out of her thoughts and followed her son into the hall.

"Henry, wait." She said. Henry stopped in his tracks and turned around, looking at her expectantly. She didn't know what she was going to say - hadn't had anything planned - but then she remembered something. She remembered that Emma still thought that Regina had messed up the potion, therefore didn't know that Regina was her True Love.

"Can you do me a favour?" Regina asked, almost fearful of Henry's reaction. He nodded his head, so Regina continued. "Could you not mention to Emma this 'True Love' malarkey."

"What do you mean?" Henry asked with a frown.

"It's just, Emma thinks that I made a mistake while creating the potion and forgot her as a result. I don't want her knowing the real reason that I forgot her. It might give her false hope."

Henry's gaze turned questioning. "False hope about what?"

Regina sighed. "She's been trying to think of a way for me to remember her. If you tell her that I'm her True Love, she might try True Love's Kiss, and not only will that be a horrendous experience for the both of us, but it will also prove ineffective."

"And why wouldn't it work?" Henry asked curiously, almost challengingly.

"Because we still need to _be in love_ for True Love's kiss to work." Regina informed him.

Henry sighed and shook his head, clearly getting annoyed at her again. "Right. And you don't love Emma."

"Don't blame this on me, Henry." Regina tried to sound firm, but came across more desperate than anything else. "Emma doesn't love me, either."

Henry rolled his eyes and turned around, walking towards the stairs. "You guys are insufferable." He grumbled.

Regina felt slightly satisfied that he encompassed Emma in the statement and not just her. Did that make her a bad person?

"Henry," Regina called after him. He stopped mid-way up the stairs but didn't turn around. "Promise me that you won't mention any of this to Emma?"

Henry sounded anything but happy when he mumbled, "Promise."

* * *

When Emma came to pick Henry up, Regina said goodbye to him at the door and lingered there so that she could watch them go.

She had a nervous feeling inside of her while she watched Henry walk down the path, a feeling which she tried to push away. This was probably the millionth time that she had sent Henry away with Emma so that he could bond with his other mother, but in Regina's world it was the first time and it was incredibly difficult for her to trust that Emma would take good care of him.

Emma didn't get out of the car to speak to Regina, and Regina didn't know whether or not to be glad about it. Of course, it meant that she didn't have to interact with the obnoxious blonde, but it also meant she didn't get any reassurance that Emma would look after their son and not do anything that Regina wouldn't.

Regina tried to remind herself that she was being stupid - worrying too much. Henry was fifteen now, which was old enough for him to look after himself without the constant attention of his mother. Or mother _s_. She needed to trust that he would be fine and he would keep himself safe, even if either of his mothers failed to do the same.

There was a brief moment when Regina made eye contact with Emma through the window of the car, but Emma broke it almost immediately, causing Regina to wonder if she was still bothered about the things she had said the last time they spoke. She knew her words had got to Emma, planted doubt in her mind, but Regina didn't know whether the seed was growing or whether it had been killed.

She didn't have too much time to think about it though, because then she noticed with resignation that the atrocious yellow bug she had seen outside Mary Margaret's loft a week ago actually belonged to Emma Swan.

 _Of course it does._

When Henry reached the car and got inside, it didn't even take a second for Emma to start driving away. Regina waved to Henry as the car disappeared down the street, then closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a long sigh.

It had been a long week, and she was only now sensing the toll that it had had on her. She was tired; tired enough that she considered going for a nap. Henry would be gone for the next nine or ten hours, so she had enough time for one. But she knew that she wouldn't be able to get any proper rest. There was too much going on in her head for that.

"Has little Hen flown the coop?"

"What?" Regina frowned at her sister, who was poking her head around the living room doorway to look at Regina, who was still leaning against the front door.

"It was a joke." Zelena said, her face dropping a little. "Hen is short for Henry, but it's also a chicken. Coops are where chickens live. To fly the coop is-"

"I get it." Regina held up a hand to stop her sister. "Yes. He has left the house. Miss Swan has just picked him up."

Zelena nodded and went back into the living room. Regina stayed where she was for a second, not really knowing what to do with herself now that Henry had gone. In the end, she followed Zelena into the living room and sat on the other end of the couch to her.

"May I ask you something?" Regina asked.

Zelena was absently toying with one of Robyn's stuffed animals, but nodded her head at Regina's request.

"How did I feel about Emma Swan before I took the forgetting potion?" It had been playing on her mind ever since Henry had mentioned that she had been happier with Emma in her life, and she needed to know the truth before the _what if_ s drove her insane.

"You..." Zelena thought about it for a second, then looked at Regina curiously. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I thought that I disliked her, but Henry seems to disagree."

Zelena nodded in understanding, then sighed. "It's hard for me to answer that, sis. You had a strange relationship with Emma and I never really understood it. I mean, you're the Evil Queen and the Saviour, you should hate each other. But you never acted like you did, not in all the time that I've known you, at least. You acted like friends, that's all I can say about it."

"But..." Regina didn't know what she had wanted her sister to say, but she was disappointed with the answer. "In the days before I took the potion... did I seem to like spending time with her and Henry."

"I think so," Zelena said with a shrug. "I mean, you invited her over for Christmas dinner, remember?"

Regina thought about it, but the potion seemed to have done its job correctly. She couldn't remember seeing Emma on Christmas day. "I only remember the Charming's coming over for dinner. And, of course, there was me, you and Henry. Wait..." Regina looked to the side while she tried to picture the dinner table. Even though it was only two weeks ago, parts of it were hazy, probably remnants of where the potion had removed Emma Swan from the picture. "And _Killian Jones_? Why the hell would I invite him?"

Regina had no trouble remembering how much she hated Captain Guyliner.

"He's Emma's boyfriend. He kinda had to come." Zelena answered, then shook her head. "The point here is that you invited Emma and Emma's family to Christmas dinner. Because she's family. You even suffered through Killian Jones for her."

"So I _did_ enjoy her company?" Regina clarified.

"I always thought so." Zelena replied. "That might not be the answer that you wanted, but it's the truth."

Regina sighed and leaned back, bringing a hand to her face.

Was choosing _not_ to remember Emma the right thing to do? Even though she thought she was happier without her, everyone else seemed to disagree, and now she was more confused than ever.

* * *

"Don't tell your mom I bought you a burger _and_ a slice of cheesecake," Emma said to her son as Henry shoved a forkful of Granny's strawberry cheesecake into his mouth. "You know how many times she's told me not to pass my bad eating habits onto you" Emma bit into her bear claw, then chewed it contemplatively. "Actually, that shouldn't be much of an issue now, should it? She probably doesn't remember how badly I eat, so she won't know that I'm the bad influence."

"Are you serious right now?"

"I know, I know. Better safe than sorry, right? Just tell her you had a burger from Granny's, then some strawberries as a snack at my place."

Henry looked at the blonde and rolled his eyes. "Not that. How are you joking about this?" He asked.

"Joking about what?"

"The fact that mom doesn't know who you are anymore, " Henry said, as if it were obvious. "Seriously, you've been acting like nothing has happened for the past hour! I've been waiting for you to address the elephant in the room, but you're just ignoring it."

"Hey, don't call your mother an elephant," Emma said in mock seriousness.

Henry just rolled his eyes and started playing with his cheesecake, clearly not taking the joke well.

"Hey, lighten up, kid."

"How can I lighten up? This huge, life-changing thing has happened and for some reason you and mom are acting like it's nothing. It's been a week and I'm already sick of this! Not being able to see you in case it makes mom uncomfortable, not being able to talk about you because mom doesn't want to hear it. What she did has screwed us all over and no one is doing anything about it. Not even grandma and grandpa have done anything! Why have we all got to suffer because mom is too stubborn to admit that you're her-" Henry cut himself off, suddenly remembering what his other mother had said. Emma didn't know that Regina was her true love and Henry had promised not to tell her.

Man, his family was messed up.

Luckily, Emma didn't seem to notice his near-slip. "I hope you haven't been sulking like this with Regina."

She was probably referring to the fact that, yes, he had been moping around for the past hour. (For the past week, actually, but Emma didn't know that.) But he couldn't help it. His two mothers were meant to be together but one was too stubborn to admit it and the other was too oblivious to realise. "She hasn't actually done anything wrong and I don't want you making her feel bad."

"She took a forgetting potion to forget Robin, but forgot you instead and isn't even trying to reverse it." Henry said, implying that _that_ was what she had done wrong.

"Maybe there's no way to reverse it," Emma suggested with a casual shrug. Casual. How could she be so calm?

"We both know what True Love's Kiss should do the trick."

"And Regina's True Love is dead."

Just because Henry couldn't tell Emma that she was Regina's true love, he could still imply it, right? "But are they really dead?"

Emma looked at Henry, tilting her head to the side suspiciously. For a moment, Henry thought that the penny had actually dropped. Clearly he over-estimated her. "Y'know, you're the third person who's said that to me," Emma said thoughtfully. "First Zelena, then Mary Margaret, now you. If I didn't know any better, I would think Robin was still alive." She looked around covertly, then leaned towards Henry. "Is he?"

"Ma..." Henry said tiredly.

Emma leaned back with a smile. "Seriously, kid, you need to lighten up."

Henry rolled his eyes and poked his cheesecake with his fork. He was quickly losing his appetite, probably due to the foul mood he was in.

Surely it was every child's dream to see their parents happy, and he had never seen his moms happier than when they were together, even if they were never really _together_. Finding out that they were True Loves... was less surprising than one might imagine. In fact, it made a lot of things make sense. Take, for instance, Emma becoming the Dark One so that Regina could be happy. Or Regina trailing to the Underworld to try and save a man she hated because she believed Emma loved him and it would make her happy.

It was obvious now that they were True Loves, so why couldn't they see it?

Okay, fair enough, Regina couldn't love someone that she didn't know, and right now, she didn't know Emma. But that didn't explain why she thought that she hated her. What was it that she'd said - that the pain she had been feeling that made her take the potion in the first place was gone now that she didn't remember Emma? That made no sense.

Neither did the fact that Emma had no idea that she loved Regina! It was so obvious that she did, Henry could see that now, but Emma was either totally oblivious or _very_ good at acting like she was.

She was still with Killian for Gods' sake!

Henry scowled at the thought of the hooked man. He had never been particularly fond of Killian. There was just something about him... he was sleazy and controlling and thought himself to be quite the charmer (though was sorely mistaken). There had been a few occasions where he had tried to bond with Henry, though Henry always shrugged off his attempts.

No thanks.

Henry put down his fork, having fully lost his appetite thanks to his thoughts of the pirate. "So, how's Killian?" He asked, trying to sound lighthearted and conversational, though probably falling short.

It didn't escape his notice that Emma rolled her eyes at the mention of her boyfriend. In fact, it even brought him a little joy. "I wouldn't know," Emma answered. "I haven't spoken to him all week."

Henry frowned and tilted his head to the side and tried his hardest not to show his internal glee. "Why?"

"I asked him to give me some space," Emma said, sounding only ever-so-slightly sad. And even that seemed forced for the sake of doing what was expected by society when one was fighting with one's boyfriend. "He was on my back about moving into my house, but I was too preoccupied with this whole Regina thing, so we had this fight about where my priorities are and-" Emma cut herself off and looked up at Henry as if she was only just remembering who she was talking to. "You're my son. You don't want to hear this."

Henry smiled uncomfortably because, although he was happy to hear Emma and Killian were having problems (it meant Emma and Regina were one step closer to getting together, right?), he still didn't want to hear details of his mother's love life with the pirate. So, he changed topic slightly. "So, you're not talking to mom _or_ Killian? It must have been a bad week."

Emma looked down and shrugged. "It's not been great, but we'll get through it. We always do, right?"

"True..." Henry allowed. "Though that's usually when we're doing something to try and fix it." Emma narrowed her eyes at him curiously, though Henry ploughed on. "Right now, no one's trying to fix anything. Mom has no memories of you and you don't seem to care-"

"Of course I care."

"You're not acting like it!"

"What do you expect me to do?"

"Find a solution."

"And what if Regina doesn't want a solution?"

"What are you talking about?"

Emma sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Henry, Regina has told me that she doesn't want the potion reversed. She doesn't want to know who I am, so I'm not going to force her to do anything."

"Mom doesn't know what she wants. Her brain is all messed up with the potion."

"Henry..."

"I'm serious. At least find a way to fix this. Don't you want her to know who you are? Don't you want things to go back to how they were? Don't you want the three of us to be a _family_ again?"

Emma looked at Henry sympathetically, then nodded her head. "Of course I do."

"Then... sort this out, Ma. _Please._ "

Emma was silent for a moment, long enough for Henry to wonder why he was the one giving a motivational speech to his mother. Surely it was a mother's job to give advice to her son and not the other way around.

"Alright." Emma finally agreed. "I'll think of something. But I'm not going to force Regina to do anything she doesn't want to do. It has to be her choice to reverse this potion."

 _God, just realise that you're in love with her already._

"That's all I ask," Henry said, instead of what he was thinking.

He found his appetite returning to him, so he picked up his fork to continue eating his cheesecake.

Even if things between his moms were still going to be messed up for a while, at least he had managed to persuade Emma into being productive again.

And he may also have formulated a plan.

* * *

At eight o'clock, the time Henry had said he'd be home by, Regina was twitching the curtain, looking for any sign of him. It seemed, not all that surprisingly, that Henry and Emma were late.

Eight o'clock came and went, five minutes past came and went, ten minutes past came and went.

Regina's imagination ran away with her. Maybe Emma and Henry had gotten into an accident. Maybe they'd been murdered. Maybe Emma had kidnapped Henry so she could keep him to herself (Regina wasn't proud of that thought, but it entered her mind).

It was 8:12pm by the time the bug pulled up outside, and Regina found herself rushing to the door. Henry seemed startled when she pulled him into a hug, though he had the sense not to say anything, even if he did cast a confused look to Emma...

Who was standing just behind him with her hands shoved into the pockets of her jacket and a sheepish look on her face. Regina pulled away from Henry upon seeing that the blonde had followed him up the path, and forced a winning politician's smile.

"Miss Swan," Regina greeted, somewhat coolly.

"Hey," The blonde replied.

Regina turned to her son, who was glancing between the two women. "Why don't you go inside? There's some leftover apple crumble on the counter if you're hungry."

Henry nodded and walked inside, waiting until he was past Regina before saying, "Try not to kill each other."

Regina rolled her eyes at the comment, but Emma settled on a chuckle and leaned to the side so that she could look around Regina and call back, "We make no promises."

Regina quirked an eyebrow at the blonde's statement, which made Emma's face drop a little when she saw it. "You're late." Regina stated, getting right down to business.

Emma frowned and pulled her phone out of her pocket, checking the time on the screen. "It's quarter past eight."

"And Henry said that he'd be home by eight."

"Well," Emma lifted a shoulder casually. "I actually said I'd bring him home for eight- _ish_ , so any miscommunication is completely down to Henry."

"Classy. Blame my son for your inability to be punctual."

"Our."

"What?"

" _Our_ son." Emma corrected her with a face that Regina couldn't read.

"My apologies," Regina said, not even sure herself whether she was being sincere.

"Listen, Regina," Emma said, making Regina realise how tired the blonde sounded. "I didn't come here to argue with you. I just wanted to say thank you. For letting me see Henry."

"I was under the impression that I didn't have much of a choice. Who am I to keep a mother from her son?"

"Well, you certainly tried when I first came to Storybrooke." Emma laughed a little, but it was awkward and humourless.

Regina looked to the side uncomfortably, part of her hating that she had no recollection of the events Emma was referring to. Actually, _all_ of her hated that she had no recollection, because maybe if she did she would know how to handle this situation.

"Is that all you wanted?" Regina asked, hoping to end this conversation before it got more uncomfortable.

Was she imagining it, or did Emma look hurt at how hastily she was wrapping things up?

"I guess..." Emma put her hands in her pockets again and shrugged. "I'll get going then."

The blonde turned and began her walk down the path, her back hunched over miserably. Regina rolled her eyes at herself for how guilty she felt, seeing how dejected the blonde looked. She was going soft.

"Miss Swan," Regina called, causing the blonde to stop in her tracks. "Thank _you_. For giving me distance this week. I was overwhelmed when you first... _barged_ into my life last weekend. But you gave me some space to absorb all this and... I really appreciate it."

Showing gratitude had never really been Regina's strong suit, but it was worth putting herself out there when Emma gave a bashful smile and shrugged as if to say 'it was nothing', before continuing her journey to her car.

Regina watched Emma until she was at the end of the path, then she backed into her house and closed the door. She found herself smiling, most likely because their conversation had ended pleasantly for once, and it took her a moment to realise what she was doing and school her features again.

Her face was straight again by the time Henry stepped out of the living room.

"Has Ma gone?" He asked.

"Yes. Why? Is everything OK?"

"Everything's fine," Henry confirmed. "We just forgot to give her back her jacket." He held up his hand, revealing the red leather jacket that Emma had left... well, Regina didn't even know when.

All she did know was that she really couldn't escape Emma Swan.

"You'll have to give it to her the next time you see her," Regina suggested.

Henry nodded and left the room, taking the jacket with him. Regina leaned against the front door and wondered when her life would stop being so complicated, before deciding that a nice relaxing bath was in order.

* * *

Henry knocked on the closed door.

It was time that he put his plan into action - his plan to help Regina restore her memories of Emma, and hopefully make his mothers realise that they were madly in love with each other in the process. But first, he needed reinforcements, because he couldn't do this alone.

"Come in," sounded a voice from the other side of the door, so Henry entered the room.

"Aunt Zelena," He said to the redhead, who was rocking Robyn's crib back and forth to get the baby to sleep. "I need your help."

"With?"

"My moms are True Loves," Henry said. "But we need to help them get together."

Zelena smiled wickedly. "Why, I thought you would never ask."

Henry grinned, glad that his aunt was already on board. "First thing's first: we need a name for this operation."

Zelena cocked her head to the side questioningly. "What did you have in mind?"

"How about 'Operation SwanQueen'?"

* * *

 **A/N: I was so relieved to find people are still interested in this fic. Thank you to everyone who stuck around through my unscheduled hiatus, I very much appreciate it :)**

 **I think this fic turned more dramatic than I had planned. It was supposed to just be fluff, but it hasn't worked out that way at all. Therefore, I promise that the remaining chapters will have a lot more fluff and a lot more falling in love. :)**


	7. Chapter 7

"One black coffee, and one hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and cinnamon," Ruby said, placing the first order in front of Zelena and the latter in front of Henry. She then turned to the teenager, offering him a wink. "You really are your mother's son, you know?"

"Which mother?" Henry joked.

"The blonde one with the serious sugar addiction," Ruby answered with a look that said 'what is she like?'

With that, Ruby went back over to the counter to get back to work, leaving Henry with his Auntie. Zelena took a sip of her coffee, then looked at Henry with a 'let's get down to business' air to her.

"So, what's this grand plan that you've come up with?"

"Well," Henry leaned forwards so that he could whisper covertly. His operations were always top secret, and Operation SwanQueen was no different. "It's two-fold. First of all, we need to get my mom to fall in love with my ma. Secondly, we need to make my ma _realise_ that she's _already_ in love with my mom."

Zelena narrowed her eyes Henry. " _That's_ your plan?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"Well, it's hardly a plan for a start. It's more... a list of objectives."

"Yeah, well... that's all I got so far. I don't know how you're supposed to make someone fall in love with someone else, and I don't know how you're supposed to make someone realise that they're in love already. I am only fifteen, after all. That's why I need your help. You have more life experience than I do."

"Oh, Hen," Zelena said, sounding sympathetic. "Do you really think that I know the first thing about love? Let's not forget that I fell for the leader of the Underworld. When it comes to relationships, I think that you're the expert here, seeing as _you're_ the one with a girlfriend."

"If _I'm_ the expert, then we're in serious trouble."

Henry leaned back in his seat, feeling disheartened by how little progress they were making. He hadn't been able to speak to Zelena the night before because Regina had been milling around and she could not, under any circumstances, hear what Henry and Zelena were planning. She would probably murder them both, and that wouldn't help anyone. So, Zelena had said that she would take Henry to Granny's in the morning and they could discuss the plan further.

Henry had spent half of the night lying awake, trying to think of ways that he could get Regina to fall in love with Emma. But it was hard, _really_ hard. Was it supposed to be this hard to make alleged True Love's fall in love? Surely not.

Henry decided to tell Zelena what his outlook on the situation was, hoping it would get their plan going. "I think getting Emma to realise that she's in love with Regina is going to be the easiest part of this. She'll probably realise it on her own soon enough, seeing as she must know that she's devastated when she doesn't have my mom in her life. But, if worst comes to worst and she doesn't realise on her own, then we can just hint like crazy until she gets it, or just _tell her_. By that logic, getting Regina to fall in love with Emma is going to be the hard part."

"Do you think your mother was in love with... well, your _other_ mother before she took the forgetting potion?" Zelena asked thoughtfully.

"How should I know? I know that she cared about her a lot, but I don't know if she was in love."

"I've been thinking... Regina said that she was hurting before she took the potion, but that she's not anymore. On the night that she took the forgetting potion - New Year's - she said that she saw a lot of couples together and _that's_ what made her think to take the potion."

"So?"

"So..." Zelena looked away, trying to decide on the right way of putting it. "Do you think that, on New Year's Eve, Regina saw Emma and Hook together and _that's_ why she was so upset. Maybe she was jealous of Killian because she was in love with Emma, and it was hurting her to see the person that she loved be with someone else."

"That doesn't make sense. My mom took the potion to forget about _Robin_ , not Emma."

"Hmm," Zelena nodded and thought some more. "Perhaps she was the same as Emma: she hadn't realised that she was in love. She could have seen Emma and Killian, it hurt her because she was in love with Emma, but she hadn't realised it yet so she pinned it on the fact that she was missing Robin."

Henry considered this, then nodded his head. "It isn't entirely impossible," He admitted.

Zelena shrugged dismissively. "It's just a thought that I had, but if it's true then it might help us."

"How so?"

"It means that Regina has fallen in love with Emma once before. If that's happened, all we have to do is show her the reasons that she fell in love with Emma the first time and hope that she falls in love again."

Henry nodded again, a smile appearing on his lips. Finally something they could work with. "That's true."

"OK, so, this is where you come in." Henry tilted his head to the side questioningly at his aunt's words, making Zelena sigh tiredly. " _I_ wasn't here when Regina fell in love with Emma, was I? _You're_ the one who has witnessed the entirety of their ever-changing relationship. So, go on. What made Regina fall for Emma?"

Henry gave Zelena a look that said ' _seriously?',_ because now he had to rack his brain for reasons that Regina might have fallen for Emma, which was hardly an easy task. Not that there weren't a lot of reasons to love Emma, but because trying to guess why someone fell in love with someone was like trying to understand what went on in their mind, and that was rather difficult. Especially when that person was Regina Mills.

Still, Henry tried to create a timeline of Emma and Regina's relationship in his head and quickly went through everything he could remember.

"Maybe..." He began slowly, making it clear he was just thinking out loud. "It was Emma's goodness. When they met, Regina was evil and Emma was the Saviour, so maybe she liked that Emma was good at heart, which was the exact opposite of what she was at the time." Henry realised that that was a terrible idea so shook his head and carried on. "It could have been because Emma is so strong. She can give as good as she gets, so when Regina was being all evilly, Emma would fight back. Not many people did that."

"It could have been that," Zelena acknowledged. "Regina likes a challenge."

"Or it could have been because of me," Henry said, not trying to sound too arrogant or anything. "When I was missing in Neverland they had to work as a team to get me back. And then when we returned to Storybrooke, they started to co-parent me."

"So it could have been how good Emma was with you," Zelena summarised. "Regina could have noticed that Emma was a good mother and liked that about her."

"It's a possibility." Henry nodded his head. "Was there anything there that we can use?"

Zelena started to think about it, trying to formulate a plan in her head. As she thought, her eyes drifted to the window of the diner, where she had to do a double take.

"We might not even need a plan. They might fall in love on their own," She said with a frown, watching a familiar brunette chatting with a familiar blonde. "Your mums are outside now and they're.. _. talking._ "

* * *

Regina had been on her way to her office when she had spotted the blonde. With everything that had gone on recently - the holidays, the forgetting potion - she was falling behind with her work, and intended to spend a couple of hours at the town hall catching up.

She had decided to walk, seeing as it was a sunny day and she enjoyed the chilly January air. She was halfway along Main Street when she saw her.

Emma was sitting on a bench outside of Granny's playing with Neal. For a moment, Regina had wondered what Emma was doing with the little toddler, and slowed her pace while she tried to decide if this was something she needed to be concerned about. But then it had dawned on her that the little boy was Emma's brother, according to what people had told her, and she realised that there was no need to worry.

Regina had spent a lot of time with Neal in his short life, mostly because she was close friends with Mary Margaret and David so they often brought him along to dinners at Granny's and other family get-togethers. She had babysat him a few times too, so had built up quite a close relationship with him. He was a part of her family.

Which is how she knew him quite well, and she knew that he was a shy boy. He was usually cautious around strangers, only becoming his happy, bubbly self around people that he was close to, like other family members. The way that Neal was giggling with Emma told Regina that they were definitely family.

Regina stopped walking, sticking close to the wall of the building next to her so that Emma wouldn't see her, and watched the laughing siblings. Neal was wearing a thick woolly hat, which he kept on pulling down to cover his eyes. Every time that he did, Emma would start looking around, as though she couldn't see the boy, and calling his name as though he were invisible. Then, Neal would lift his hat and shout 'Here I am!', causing Emma to look at him with a shocked expression and ask 'How did you do that?' This process kept on repeating itself, with Neal never tiring of it and Emma seeming to enjoy it.

Eventually, Neal took his hat off completely, revealing his dishevelled blonde hair which had clearly been through hell while he had been lifting and lowering his hat. Regina smiled at the sight, and heard Emma's laughter fill the air. The sheriff pulled her brother onto her lap and started combing his hair with her fingers, much to Neal's chagrin. The little boy tried to wriggle for freedom, not wanting to be fussed over, so Emma had to become more stern to try to get him to behave.

It was actually quite nice to watch. Observing children was always entertaining, because they did such odd things and didn't yet have a full understanding or what was and wasn't socially acceptable. But Regina found that it was Emma that she was looking at today. Maybe it was because, subconsciously, Regina hadn't expected Emma to be good with children, but the way that she handled Neal seemed to contradict that.

Regina was so busy watching how Emma controlled the boy that she didn't notice Neal turn in her direction until she heard his little voice shouting, "Gina!"

Regina's eyes widened as she cursed herself for standing in such plain sight as she had now been spotted. Emma's head snapped up, looking around until her eyes landed on Regina, then she stared at the brunette in surprise for a few moments, Regina's presence obviously unexpected. Emma's temporary distraction gave Neal his golden opportunity to scramble off her lap and charge towards Regina.

The blonde boy's head was about to smash into her thigh when Regina ducked and scooped him up with practised ease. She put the giddy boy on her hip and looked at him with a special smile that adults only reserve for children. "Hello, little guy," She said, bouncing the toddler slightly. "How are you doing today?"

"Good!"

"What are you doing out here?"

"Ice cream!"

"You're getting ice cream?" She asked, sounding exaggeratedly surprised for Neal's benefit. "Aren't you a lucky boy?"

Neal nodded enthusiastically with a toothy grin, then looked over his shoulder to where Emma was walking towards them, her hands stuffed sheepishly into her pockets. Emma smiled at Regina as she stood in front of her, though it was a little wary, like she was worried that she wouldn't be welcome. Ordinarily, she probably wouldn't, but Regina decided that she would be civil with the other woman.

Emma hesitated for a second before saying, "We're not getting ice cream."

"What?" Regina frowned.

"He just told you that we're getting ice cream, didn't he?" Emma asked, nodding to the toddler in Regina's arms. Regina nodded her head, causing Emma to smile and say, "He's lying. He _wants_ ice cream, but he isn't allowed any in the morning because it makes him sick. Isn't that right, Neal?"

Neal pouted at being told that he wasn't getting his ice cream, then stuck his tongue out bitterly at Emma. When he turned back to Regina, he was scowling comically.

"Hey, fix your face, young man," Regina poked his nose with a finger, but Neal shook his head to shake her hand away.

"Fix your _attitude_ , dude," Emma nudged her brother's shoulder, but Neal was still less than amused. She looked at Regina apologetically. "Ignore him. I've been told that he's in his Terrible Two's. If we keep telling him what to do, he'll end up throwing a tantrum, and that won't be fun for any of us. Trust me."

"It sounds like you're speaking from experience."

"All I'm gonna say is that people trying to eat their breakfast at Granny's don't take too kindly to a two year old boy kicking and screaming in the middle of the floor."

Regina lifted an eyebrow and gave an amused smile to Emma. "And when did this happen?"

Emma glanced at her wrist as if to check what the time was, though Regina noted that Emma wasn't even wearing a watch and smiled bemusedly."About half an hour ago," Emma informed anyway. "When I first told him that he couldn't get ice cream. That's why we're sitting outside." She hooked a thumb over her shoulder to indicate the bench that they had just been sitting on.

Regina turned to Neal, who was still scowling, though he was now playing with a button on Regina's coat. "Sounds like you've been being a naughty boy, mister."

Neal looked at her grumpily. "No."

"No?"

"No."

Regina laughed slightly while Neal continued to fiddle with her button, his attention leaving her once more. "He's just like Henry was at this age," Regina said, unsure whether or not she was saying it for Emma's benefit or just for her own. "One second he's the happiest little boy in the world, and the next he's sulking. He just needs to learn that he can't get what he wants all the time."

"Well, let's hope he continues to follow in Henry's footsteps," Emma said, absentmindedly reaching out to straighten Neal's coat. "If he does, he'll turn out just fine."

"I think he'll be just fine anyway," Regina admitted. "He's a Charming, after all. I think there's something in the Charming genes which makes it impossible for them to be anything less than outstanding people."

"Thanks."

Regina looked up when Emma said that word, unsure what she was being thanked for exactly. But then she remembered that Emma was also a Charming and realised that she had unintentionally complimented her, too. Regina really needed to stop forgetting who Emma was related to, but, in her mind, this was all new and it was extremely confusing.

"Anyway," Regina shook her head and changed the subject. "If you're not getting ice cream, then what are you doing?"

"We were on our way to the station," Emma informed her. "My shift starts in half an hour, so me and my dad are making a trade. I'll give him Neal, he'll give me a pile of paperwork."

Regina smirked. "Sounds like a fair deal."

"Right?" Emma agreed with a shake of her head.

Neal then decided that he was bored of Regina and turned towards Emma, suddenly throwing his body towards the blonde while he said, "Emmy."

Emma had to quickly step forward to catch him, resulting in her being stood extremely close to Regina. At first, Emma didn't even notice how close she was - too preoccupied with settling Neal onto her own hip - but Regina noticed. She noticed because she could smell Emma, and it was a familiar scent, the same one that was on the red leather jacket left over at Regina's house.

Regina didn't step away. "Emmy?" She said quietly instead.

"Yeah," Emma laughed a little and then looked up, realising that she was standing a little over a foot away from Regina. Her eyes dropped to Regina's body, looking at their close proximity, then she looked back to Regina's face and swallowed. "Yeah," She said again. "That's what he calls me, for some reason."

"It's cute," Regina admitted.

"I guess."

Regina smiled as she looked at Neal and flattened down his hair, with was still sticking up in places. "I think he's incapable of saying anyone's name correctly. You're 'Emmy', I'm 'Gina'..."

"Henry's 'Henny'." Emma contributed.

"Zelena is 'Zena'."

"Seriously?" Emma said, amused. "I've never heard that one."

"Oh, I heard it on New Year's Eve," Regina informed the blonde. "It was very entertaining."

"I bet it was," Emma nodded. "You know, I'd never even noticed how many nicknames Neal had created until you just pointed it out." She turned to face Neal, who had been looking over her shoulder but turned to face her when he noticed her attention was on him. "You just have to make a pet name for everyone, don't you, buddy?"

Neal looked at her blankly, then looked back over her shoulder again, making Emma and Regina laugh.

Regina looked to the side as she laughed, catching sight of something in the corner of her eye. She turned her attention fully to the window of Granny's, then self-consciously stepped away from Emma. "It seems we have an audience."

"Huh?" Emma frowned in confusion, then followed Regina's gaze, her eyes finding Henry and Zelena staring at them through the window of the diner. "Oh..." Emma lifted the hand that wasn't holding Neal up into an awkward wave, which was returned by both the aunt and nephew. "What are they doing?"

"I have no idea." Regina admitted, then looked at the ground. "Probably spying on us. You know how much they want us to-"

Regina stopped abruptly. She was about to say 'kiss', but it had occurred to her just in time that Emma didn't know that they were soulmates so it probably wouldn't be wise to finish the sentence in that way.

Unfortunately, Emma noticed that way that Regina made herself shut up, and decided to question it. "How much they want us to...?"

Regina cleared her throat and finished with, "Break the effects of the forgetting potion."

"Oh, yeah," Emma nodded. "Henry's not too thrilled about it, is he?" Regina gave Emma a look that said, 'you're telling me' and folded her arms across her chest. "I've tried telling him that we don't even know how to reverse the potion, but he insists that there's a way."

Regina avoided Emma's gaze, worried that she'd give away the fact that there _was_ a solution. "Yes, well,"

"I mean, obviously True Love's Kiss should work, but with Robin gone, that's impossible. Right?"

"Right."

"Right." Emma looked thoughtful for a moment, but then shook her head. She bent down and put Neal on the ground, keeping firm hold of his hand, though. "Anyway, we should be going. My shift starts soon, so..."

"Of course," Regina nodded.

"I'll see you around," Emma gave Regina a little smile and turned to leave, pausing to wave at Henry and Zelena through the window again.

Then Emma started to walk away, partially holding Neal up as he toddled along next to her. Regina smiled at the sight, but then realised that the blonde was walking in the same direction that she had been about to walk in and groaned internally. It was always awkward to walk in the same direction as someone you just said goodbye to. Regina shook her head and followed behind the blonde, the sound of her heels alerting Emma and Neal to her presence.

When Emma cast a questioning glance at her, Regina explained, "I'm on my way to town hall."

"Oh," Emma nodded in understanding as Regina caught up to her and walked beside her.

They walked together in an uncomfortable silence, Regina spending the entire time wondering why she hadn't just waited until Emma was out of sight before continuing her journey to town hall. It would have been a lot easier and a lot less tense.

After a couple of minutes, though, Neal broke the silence as he screamed, "Weeee!"

Regina frowned and looked down at the little boy, but Emma seemed to already know what he wanted. "Not right now, little man," She said to him.

Neal looked up at his sister, a grumpy frown appearing on his face. "Weeee!" He said again, more sternly this time.

"I just said no!" Emma reminded him.

Neal stopped walking, causing Emma to stop too, and stamped his foot. "Weeee!"

Emma sighed in exasperation and rubbed her face. "Neal." Her voice was firm, trying to get the young boy to behave.

"What is it that he wants?" Regina asked.

"It's this thing that he does with my mom and dad," Emma explained. "They each take one of his hands and then, while they walk, they swing him up into the air. He loves it."

"Ah," Regina nodded in understanding. "And I suppose 'wee' is what he screams while they do it."

"Exactly."

Regina looked from the frustrated blonde to the stubborn little boy. She knew the right thing to do would be to insist that Neal not get his own way, merely to teach him the lesson that he couldn't always get what he wanted. That was why it came as a surprise, even to her, when her next words tumbled out of her mouth. " _We_ could do it."

Emma looked at her in surprise, then shook her head. "You don't need to do that."

"I want to." Regina smiled, showing that she was being genuine.

Emma smiled gratefully and then nodded. "OK. You can grab his other hand."

Regina did as she was told, going to the other side of Neal and taking his hand in hers. She could see the excited smile on his lips and found herself smiling too. She could never feel guilty about making a child happy.

The trio continued walking down Main Street, Neal now giggling in anticipation. Eventually, Emma said, "Alright, on the count of three. 1, 2, 3!"

On three, Emma and Regina swung Neal into the air, not high enough to scare him but still high enough that he got the burst of adrenaline that he had been looking for. The little boys laughter filled the air, and Regina found that it was infectious.

"Again! Again!" Neal squealed once his feet were back on the ground.

"OK. 1, 2 ,3!"

Again, Emma and Regina swung Neal, and again he screamed 'Weeeeee!' and ended up in a fit of giggles. Regina laughed and glanced at Emma, who was smiling down at her brother with a look of unadulterated joy. Regina had never seen the blonde look so happy before - so content - and she realised that Emma's smile was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

Emma must have felt Regina's eyes on her, for she looked up at the brunette, her smile never wavering. Regina's heart almost melted when that dazzling smile was directed at her.

"As I said, he loves it," Emma said with a laugh, her eyes going back to the little boy.

"Again!" Neal shouted, jumping up and down in excitement.

"Alright, but only once more," Emma told him. "We're almost at the station and I have to drop you off with daddy, OK?"

Neal nodded vigorously, caring more about his next swing than he did about anything else.

"1, 2, 3!"

His final swing was much the same as the first two, and Regina found that playing the game with the little boy had made her almost as happy as it had made him. She felt lighter now that she had made a child's day, and didn't really want to stop. It was such a normal thing to do, such a _family_ thing to do, and it made Regina's heart warm. It was the perfect little family that she had always wanted. Raising Henry on her own had been amazing, but she often wondered what it would have been like to have someone there with her. Now she had been given the slightest taste of it and she knew... it was incredible. Emma would be a fantastic mom, even to a young child.

"And we're here," Emma said, stopping walking outside of the sheriff's station. Regina stopped too, to say goodbye to the two siblings. "Thank you for that," The blonde said sincerely.

"It was my pleasure." Regina knelt down in front of Neal. "And I'll see you soon, mister. You be good, OK?" Neal nodded his head with a grin, giggling when Regina poked his nose playfully. She leaned forward, offering her cheek for a kiss from the toddler. He obliged, giving her the quickest and softest of pecks. "Is that all I get?" Regina asked, feigning offence. "I don't think so," She grabbed the boy's cheeks gently and kissed his face all over, leaving lipstick prints in every spot she touched. When she pulled away, Neal rubbed at his face as though he was disgusted, but his smile gave him away.

Regina patted his head and then stood up to say goodbye to Emma. However, before she could said anything, the blonde joked, "Is that the goodbye I'm going to get to?"

Regina raised an eyebrow. Part of her was taken aback from the joke, but part of her reasoned that, in Emma's mind, they had known each other for years so what she had said wouldn't be too inappropriate. It was with that in mind that Regina chose her answer; a simple, "Not today, Miss Swan."

"Damn," Emma said with a little laugh.

"Goodbye, Miss Swan."

"Cya, Regina."

Regina turned and continued on her way to town hall, feeling the blonde's eyes on her as she walked.

* * *

The first thing that Emma did when she got inside the station was sit Neal in a chair and give him a stuffed bear to play with.

The next thing she did was walk over to her father's desk, put her hands on it and lean over him like a detective giving an interrogation. "Do you know something that I don't?"

David looked away from his computer screen and up at the blonde, seeming confused by his daughter's question. "Um..."

"Because I think that you do."

"I think you'll need to expand a little."

"Well, you know how I have my superpower, right? A lie detector built into my brain?" Emma tapped her head as she said this. David looked to the side, obviously wondering what was going on, but nodded anyway. "Well, I've just been talking to Regina. I said that it would be impossible for True Love's Kiss to give her her memory back because Robin was gone, and she agreed..." Emma leaned forward for effect. "But she was lying."

"And what does this have to do with me?" David asked innocently.

"Because everyone that I have told that Regina's true love is dead has said the same thing: 'But is he though?' You and mom included. So, why don't you tell me what you're hiding?"

David leaned back in his seat, getting as far away from Emma as he could. "Emma..."

"Is Robin still alive?"

"Of course not?"

"Does Regina had another True Love that I don't know about?"

David opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

Emma stood up straight again, her face looking shocked. "Holy crap. Regina has another True Love."

"OK, two things. First: language; my son is sitting over there. Second-"

"Who is it?"

"Emma-"

"I'm serious. You need to tell me right now."

"I don't think I should."

"Why? Do I know them?"

"Yes."

"Then who is it?"

"Honey..." David stood up and walked around his desk so that he was next to his daughter. "This isn't anyone else's business. It's not our secret to tell. By the sounds of it, Regina knows exactly who her True Love is, so you can always ask her and, if she's ready, then she'll tell you."

"So there is a way that this potion can be reversed?" Emma clarified, to which her father nodded. "Thank God. But I still just..." Emma trailed off and folded her arms across her chest. "I can't believe that she has another True Love. But... if she knows who it is, then why isn't she with them?"

"I've already said enough," David decided, backing away from his daughter and walking over to his son. "I'm just going to go now, before I say something that I shouldn't. Have you got it from here?" He nodded to the computer, clearly meaning manning the station. Emma nodded her head, so David said, "OK then. I'll see you later, sweetie." He picked up Neal and walked out of the station, leaving Emma alone.

Emma stood there for a long while, thinking about the new information she had acquired. Why did Regina get so many True Loves? Daniel, Robin, whoever the hell this new guy was...

And why did the thought of Regina being with someone again make Emma's heart drop?

* * *

 **A/N: I've updated two stories in as many days. Are you proud?**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know if you did, and if you didn't... let me know why? :)**


	8. Chapter 8

_Killian: Hey, love. Can I come over? Need to see you._

 ** _Emma: Sorry. I'm watching Neal right now._**

 _Killian: So? The young lad loves me. I'll be there in ten._

Emma rolled her eyes and threw her phone onto the couch cushion next to her. The 'young lad' most certainly did _not_ love Killian. Emma figured it was because of the hook; it must have scared the living daylights out of her little brother, but Neal always ended up screaming the house down whenever Killian was around.

Knowing that it wouldn't be long before her boyfriend was knocking on her door, Emma got up and walked over to where Neal was playing with a little train set on the floor. "I think it's nap time, little man," She said, bending down to scoop him up. If Neal was asleep, then Killian would leave him alone and he wouldn't end up in tears.

But, even though Neal was only 2, he knew that ten o'clock in the morning was most certainly not nap time. He frowned up at Emma and shook his head with a, "Nuh-uh," Then made like he was going to bite his sister when she put her arms near him.

"Hey!" Emma quickly withdrew the targeted appendages. "No biting! Biting is bad!"

Neal giggled and got back to his trains, so Emma decided to leave him be. If she forced him to lie down, he would only throw a tantrum and Emma didn't have the energy to deal with that. She hadn't slept much last night, having been too busy going through all the guys in Storybrooke, one by one, and deciding whether or not they could be Regina's True Love. So far, Emma hadn't found anyone.

But, because she had been awake for so long, she didn't have the energy to deal with Killian either, but there was nothing that she could do about him. Hook was nothing if not persistent, and was known for rarely taking no for an answer. If he wanted to speak to her, he would speak to her, and Emma had a bad feeling that he wanted to talk about their relationship. They hadn't spoken now for over a week, despite Killian's best efforts to contact her. But Emma didn't want to see him because she knew that he would continue pestering her about them moving in together, which was something that Emma didn't want.

The thought of constantly having him around made Emma feel drained. The thought of constantly having to stroke his ego, deal with his rum-induced hangovers, have him dictate when and who she went out with... Emma couldn't, and wouldn't, live that way, no matter how much he tried to pressure her.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Emma glanced at the clock on the wall, noting that it had been nowhere near ten minutes since Killian's text. He had probably been waiting outside all along, intending to come to the door whether she gave him permission or not. With a roll of her eyes, she walked over to the door and opened it, revealing Killian on the other side.

"Hello, love, how are you?" He said, reaching out to grab her waist.

Emma turned and walked into the house, out of reach of the pirate's clutch. She heard him sigh and close the door, then follow her into the living room. "I had been hoping that we could sort this out like adults, Swan, but it seems that you're feeling petulant today."

"Petulant?" Emma echoed in disbelief.

"Perhaps your brother's behaviour has been wearing off on you," Killian commented as he crouched down in front of the toddler on the floor. "What do you say, Neal?"

The blonde haired boy looked at the pirate blankly, then glanced at his sister.

"Leave him alone, Killian," Emma said tiredly. "He's playing."

"I can see that." Killian nodded his head, then picked up the train that Neal had been pushing around. The little boy watched with a frown, obviously not happy that his toy had been taken from him. "Trains?" Killian raised an eyebrow at Neal. "Trains are for fools." Killian threw the train over his shoulder. "What you need is a ship, lad. Ships are for men, and they let us travel the world via the seas. Do your little trains let you do that? Of course not."

Neal looked from Killian to where his train lay on the floor a few feet away. As soon as the young boy's lip quivered, Emma knew what was about to happen and closed her eyes. A moment later, Neal's screams filled the room as he burst into tears, meaning Emma had to storm over to him and scoop him up, rocking him gently to try and soothe him.

"It's OK, Neal," She said comfortingly. "You can still play with your train. See?" She bent down and picked up the toy, trying to hand it to her brother, though he completely ignored it and continued crying.

"The boy needs to stop acting like such a baby," Killian commented as he stood up straight again.

"He's _two_!"

"Exactly!"

Emma narrowed her eyes, unable to believe what Killian was saying, but she didn't see any use in fighting about it so she turned around and walked over to the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Killian asked from behind.

"To get Neal his favourite teddy," Emma said over her shoulder. "Or is that too childish for a two-year-old as well?"

Emma didn't pause for her boyfriend's reaction, instead choosing to go upstairs to her guest bedroom, where Neal had slept on a couple of occasions when Mary Margaret and David had needed some time alone. Once his favourite stuffed animal was in his arms (and he was no longer in the same vicinity as Hook), Neal calmed down considerably until his crying came out in the occasional sob. Eventually, he shoved his thumb in his mouth, the telltale sign that he was tired and ready for a lie down. His crying fit must have tired him out, Emma assumed, so she put him down so that he could rest and then went back downstairs.

Killian was sitting on the arm of the couch, but stood when Emma reached the last step. But before he could say anything, she asked, "Why are you even here, Killian?" As she said it, she was aware of how worn out she sounded and thought it perfectly matched how worn out she _felt_.

"I'm here to sort out this silly fight we had," Killian said, as though it were obvious. "It's already gone on much too long. I mean, you've been ignoring my texts and calls for a week now, lass."

"Yes, because you pissed me off."

"We both said things that we didn't mean-"

"No, I meant what I said. You need to stop pressuring me into letting you move in here."

"I'm not pressuring you," Killian said, as though he had any idea how he was making Emma feel. "I'm just encouraging us to take the next natural step in our relationship. We have nothing holding us back." Killian waited for Emma to say something, but when she continued to look at him like he was in the wrong, he added, "But, if we're being honest, _I_ meant what _I_ said: You need to stop prioritising Regina over our relationship."

Emma scoffed and folded her arms across her chest. "When do I ever put Regina ahead of our relationship?"

"All the bloody time! What about just this week when you wouldn't give me the time of day because you were too worried about the fact that Regina can't remember you? Or what about all the times that you have cancelled our dates so that you could have dinner with Regina and Henry at the mansion? Hell, even you becoming the Dark One-"

"Me becoming the Dark One had absolutely nothing to do with you!"

"And that's the point!" Killian stepped forward, obviously getting annoyed. "You threw yourself into the darkness so that Regina could get her happy ending. You could have died, Emma. You could have left me, destroyed _my_ happiness, but that didn't matter to you as long as Regina got to live Happily Ever After."

Emma knew that Killian had a point. She hadn't considered him when she had risked her life for Regina. But she would never admit that he was right. "I only had a split second to make a decision, Killian. I just did what my gut told me to do."

"And your gut always tells you to save Regina."

"She's Henry's mom!"

" _You're_ Henry's mum! She's just the woman who raised him while you weren't around."

Emma narrowed her eyes at Killian incredulously. "Although she isn't biologically related to him, Regina is as much Henry's mother as I am. He needs _both_ of us, so yes, I will always save Regina if I can."

"Is that the only reason? For Henry?" Killian challenged.

"What exactly are you insinuating?"

"You follow Regina around like a lost puppy even when Henry isn't around. Don't tell me that your relationship with her starts and ends with the fact that you share a son."

"No, you're right, it doesn't. We're also friends. _Best_ friends."

"Oh yes, you are, aren't you? Such good friends that Regina has been avoiding you all week! She'd rather run a mile in the other direction than spend a second in your company."

"First of all, that's only because she took that potion and can't remember me. Secondly, I was with her just yesterday. She walked with me to the station."

Killian rolled his eyes. "Of course she did."

"Why do you even care so much about whether or not me and Regina are friends?"

"Because it negatively affects our relationship, that's why. You spend most of your time with her, which means you spend hardly any time with me."

"That's not true," Emma shook her head and folded her arms across her chest. "I always have to tell Regina that I can't go over for dinner or something because I know that if I don't spend that time with you then you'll have a hissy fit."

"There's no need to sound like spending time with me is such a chore, Swan." Killian scratched his cheek with his hook, then looked back at Emma. "Do you even _want_ to be with me?"

Emma looked away, unable to hold Killian's eye. It was a good question that he had just asked, one that she hadn't considered in a long time. _Do I want to be with Killian?_

At one point, of course she had, that's why she'd ended up with him in the first place. But... Emma hadn't been happy with him for a while now, and surely that meant something. Although, just because she wasn't happy with him at the moment, that didn't mean that they couldn't change things so that she would be happy in the future.

Emma tried to picture her future so that she could see where Killian would fit into it. She saw herself as being married, possibly with another child... but Killian wouldn't want a child; he was terrible with children and Emma wouldn't want to raise one with him in the first place. Too much responsibility would fall to her, she knew it already. Killian probably wouldn't even be able to change diapers with his hook and, come to think of it, would struggle to hold a baby because of it. He would get sick of the child crying through the night, so would probably stay at the B&B instead. He would spend most evenings out drinking, like he did already, leaving Emma with the child. It would be like she was a single mom, and she wanted to raise a child _with_ somebody.

In her imagined future, she also saw Henry. Henry going to college, Henry getting married, Henry having children... Emma and Regina being _grandmothers_. What a scary thought that was. And hopefully not something that would happen for many more years.

Come to think of it, she didn't see Killian anywhere in her future. All she saw was herself, Henry and Regina... wait, what was Regina doing there?

"Well, I suppose there's my answer." Killian's voice was quiet and defeated, making Emma look toward him guiltily. He looked pained, and Emma felt her heart break for him. He had been wanting to move in, to take the next step, but she wanted to go backwards.

The hurt look on Killian's face quickly turned to anger though as he advanced on Emma. "You've been stringing me along this whole time, Swan. You never wanted to be with me. Why would you let me waste my time on you?"

"Killian-"

"You could have just told me this months ago and saved us both a lot of trouble."

"I didn't know-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses, Swan!" Killian took a couple of steps back. "Needless to say we're over. But don't worry, I'm sure your precious queen will help you through the breakup."

With that, Killian turned and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Emma stayed where she was for a while after that, staring at the door, dumbfounded.

She tried to gauge how she was feeling, tried to find it in herself somewhere to feel sad that Killian was gone. But she didn't. All there was was relief.

She was a terrible person.

* * *

That afternoon, after David had finished his shift at the station, Emma dropped Neal off at the loft and then headed to Mifflin Street.

She figured that she better tell Henry that she and Killian were no longer dating, feeling that it was his right to know and, well, there was no time like the present. She didn't know how her son would react - whether or not he would be happy or disappointed by the news. Henry had never shown much fondness towards Hook before, only giving him the slightest bit of interest if the pirate was telling a story about his days travelling the seas. Most of Killian's stories weren't appropriate for young audiences, but he had a couple that had piqued Henry's interest.

But just because Henry had never outwardly shown any enthusiasm towards the pirate, that didn't mean that he necessarily disliked Killian. Besides, he had come to accept him as Emma's boyfriend and finding out that this was no longer the case might be disappointing to him.

Or, he might be thrilled.

It could go either way.

Emma knocked on the door, then put her hands in the back pockets of her jeans because she wasn't wearing a jacket. She still hadn't found her red leather jacket, even though she had searched and searched for it. _Crap. What if Killian has it?_

While Emma worried about that, Regina opened the door.

"Miss Swan," She said, sounding surprised, but not angry or disappointed like she would have done a few days ago. It seemed their walk along Main Street had made Regina warm to her slightly. "Henry didn't tell me that you were dropping by."

"He doesn't know," Emma informed her. "But I was hoping that I could see him, if he's here."

"Of course," Regina nodded, then stepped aside. "Come on in. I'll go and get him."

Emma stepped into the foyer, closing the door behind her while Regina disappeared up the stairs. Emma rubbed her hands together, trying to warm them seeing as the crisp January air outside had made them cold. While she did this, she looked around the room, as if she hadn't seen it a million times already, simply because she didn't know what else to do.

When she heard a bang from the kitchen, she assumed that it was Zelena, so she walked over and poked her head inside to say hello.

But it wasn't Zelena.

It was some guy that Emma had never seen before, and he was pouring himself a glass of lemonade from a jug in the fridge. He was young, either late teens or early twenties, but definitely too old and mature-looking to be a friend of Henry's. His hair, short and brown and wavy, was messy, but at the same time looked like he'd spent an hour this morning styling it to make it look this way. He pretty much looked like someone who had just been turned down for the role of heart-throb in the world's newest popular boy band.

Boy Band Reject was wearing a black t-shirt that had holes in it and showed off a tribal tattoo on one of his arms. He was also wearing some dark blue jeans, but didn't have any shoes on his feet. He seemed to have made himself quite at home in Regina's kitchen.

Oh, and he looked hot, his face red as though he had just exerted himself.

Emma frowned at him, even though he was yet to notice her, wondering who he was and why he was in Regina's house. That is, until she remembered what David had told her the day before: that Regina had another True Love here in Storybrooke who could help to erase the forgetting potion.

Emma connected the dots in her head. _This guy_ was Regina's True Love. That would explain why Emma had been struggling to figure out who it could be: she had never met this man before. He looked so comfortable in the mansion, taking off his shoes and helping himself to lemonade, because, who knew how many times he'd been here before, visiting his True Love Regina? And he looked so hot because...

 _No way_. Had they _slept_ together? With Henry in the house?

Emma clenched her jaw at the thought, feeling angry and hurt and betrayed. Who the hell did this guy think he was, coming to the mansion and becoming Regina's boy toy? Having sex with her while Emma and Regina's son was just upstairs? It was deeply inappropriate and, frankly, disgusting. And who the hell did _Regina_ think _she_ was, because she was just as guilty as Boy Band Reject!

"Henry should be down in a second."

Emma turned at the sound of Regina's voice. The brunette had managed to come back down the stairs without Emma hearing, and was now standing just behind her with a look that said 'is everything OK?'

" _This_ guy?" Emma said, hooking a thumb over her shoulder to point at Boy Band Reject by the kitchen counter. " _This guy_ is your True Love?"

At that, Regina frowned. "Miss Swan-"

"He's half your age! _Less than_ half your age!" Emma cried, outraged. "And he's..." She looked at the boy, who was now staring at her like she was crazy. "Not at all your type. I mean, I didn't realise you were into pretty boys who care more about how they look than they do about you. And since when were you a cougar, Regina?"

Regina glanced at the boy, clearly embarrassed about Emma's behaviour. "Miss Swan, you need to-"

"No, I don't need to do anything! But _you_ need to have some damn self respect! Was it fairy dust that told you that this was your True Love? Because, come on, that's bullshit! He's a kid! He can't take care of you, he can't treat you like you deserve to be treated! I think you need to stop putting all of your faith into magic because _clearly_ it isn't right about everything, and it isn't right about this. This guy is a carbon copy of every other guy who thinks the world of himself!" She turned to face Boy Band Reject. "Let me guess, you go to the gym at least five times a week? Drink protein shakes to make yourself look 'ripped'? Take artistic selfies, spend half an hour adding filters before putting it on Instagram and watching the likes roll in?

"And you," She turned back to Regina. "You're going to be the MILF that he brags about sleeping with to his friends. That's what guys like this do, Regina, they don't value women enough because they're too young. And, while you may be willing to settle for someone like this, I'm not going to let you because you are _so_ much better than this."

"Ma?" Henry appeared, walking slowly down the stairs and looking at Emma with confusion.

"Wait in the car, kid."

"But-"

"Car, Henry," Emma said firmly, her voice holding no room for argument.

Henry narrowed his eyes at her moodily but did as he was told, walking out of the mansion and closing the door behind him. As soon as he was gone, Regina tried to speak again, "Now, Miss Swan-"

"And you think that it's acceptable to sleep with your boy toy with Henry upstairs?" Emma hissed, narrowing his eyes at Regina. "I thought that you were better than that, Regina. What if he had come down here and seen that? In fact, what kind of example does this set for our son? Clearly you're not with this guy because of the deep, intellectual conversations that you share. Is it just because he has more energy to pleasure you than most guys your age do? He can go for longer, if you know what I mean?"

"Miss Swan!"

"Oh, so you're allowed to have sex when Henry is just upstairs but as soon as I just _talk_ about it-"

Emma was cut off by the sound of the back door opening, and she glanced over to see who was entering. It was a man who she recognised, but it took her a moment to be able to place him. Michael Tillman: Nick and Ava's father. He paused when the door hit some dirty boots, which probably belonged to Boy Band Reject. But why were they by the back door instead of the front? Michael pushed the boots out of the way, then stepped into the kitchen. He was wearing some blue, oil-stained overalls and was wiping his hands on a dirty cloth.

"I got her all fixed up for you, Ms. Mills," Michael said, clearly unaware of what had been going on before he entered. "I had to order in an extra part, though, so the fix should cost around $120, if that's OK." He picked up the jug of lemonade and poured some into a glass, then took a mouthful and let out a refreshed sigh. "This lemonade is great, by the way."

Emma looked from Michael, who was oblivious to Emma's outburst, to Boy Band Reject, who looked incredibly awkward, to Regina, who was scowling at her.

"Miss Swan," Regina said coolly. "This is Michael, my mechanic. He's here to fix my car, which wouldn't start this morning. And this," She indicated to Boy Band Reject. "Is Freddie, Michael's apprentice. They've been working on my car for most of the day, so I invited them in for some lemonade."

Emma's mouth formed an 'o' shape. She felt her cheeks begin to burn with a blush, mortified at the mistake that she had made. So Boy Band Reject - Freddie - _wasn't_ Regina's True Love. They _hadn't_ slept together. Oh.

Regina folded her arms across her chest, clearly annoyed at Emma. "I'm sorry," Emma said. "I just thought-"

"I think that you should leave now, Miss Swan."

"But-"

" _Now._ "

Emma hesitated, not knowing whether or not she should really go, or stay to try to get Regina to listen to her. But the vein on Regina's forehead was bulging, so she decided to let the brunette cool off before she attempted to make things right.

"I'm sorry," Emma said again, trying to sound as sincere as possible. She then turned to Freddie and apologised to him, too. Then she turned and meekly left the house, feeling mortified the entire time.

* * *

Emma got into her bug without looking at Henry, who was in the passenger seat. She pretended not to notice the way that he was looking at her like she'd come unhinged, and instead just started the car and started to drive away, getting as far away from 108 Mifflin Street as she could.

"Ma, are you going to tell me why you were yelling at that guy?"

"I wasn't yelling _at_ him," Emma corrected. "I was yelling _because of_ him."

"But why?"

"That's not important."

"I think it is."

"Well, I think it isn't and I'm your mom, so."

Henry rolled his eyes and looked out of the window. "Why did you even pick me up? We don't have plans."

"Because I need to tell you something." The ominous statement got Henry's attention back. "Killian and I broke up."

"What? Today?"

"Yes, this morning."

"Why?"

"He's not right for me," Emma said with a shrug. "I thought that he was, but... we want different things. I wouldn't have been happy with him, and he wouldn't have been happy with me, so we did what was for the best and called it quits."

Emma waited for Henry's reaction; waited for the tears or the celebration, whichever it was going to be. However, for a few moments (which felt like a few hours, to Emma) he was silent, digesting the new information.

Then, eventually, "Thank God." Henry let his head fall back in relief, making Emma laugh, albeit it was more out of confusion than humour.

"You're happy about that?"

"Of course! Killian's just... bleh. I've always thought that you could do so much better than him, and now you finally can."

Emma smiled and glanced at Henry. "I must say, I'm relieved by your reaction. I didn't want to upset you."

Henry grinned at her, then looked back outside at the streets of Storybrooke rolling by. "Where are you taking us, anyway?"

"I have no idea," Emma admitted. "I was going to tell you about Killian in the car outside your mom's, but after what happened, I had to get away from there. I suppose we could go to Granny's. Ice cream?"

"Sure. But are you going to tell me what happened with mom?"

Emma sighed as she turned the car onto Main Street. "Fine. Yesterday, I found out that your mother has a True Love. Not Robin, but someone alive and well and living in Storybrooke. That means that there's someone out there who can kiss Regina, break the effects of the potion and give her back her memories of me. But, I have no idea who it could be, because when you eliminate all the guys who already have True Loves, and all the guys who _do not_ deserve Regina, you're pretty much left with nobody."

"What does this have to do with why you were yelling at mom?" Henry asked impatiently.

"Give me a second!" Emma pulled the car over across the road from Granny's, then shut off the engine and turned to Henry. "When I got to the mansion today and your mom went to get you, I saw... _Freddie_ in the kitchen and jumped to the conclusion that, maybe, he was your mom's True Love. Apparently, it was the wrong conclusion to jump to."

Henry looked at her like she was an idiot before bursting out laughing, throwing his head back and everything. Emma shook her head at the reaction, feeling that it most certainly was not a laughing matter. She was absolutely mortified by the fact that she had got so annoyed, and both Regina and Freddie (and now Henry) must think that she was an absolute moron.

"You thought that _he_ was mom's True Love?" Henry said, his laughter just starting to die down. "Man, you really are an idiot at times."

"Well, what was I supposed to think? He was standing in your kitchen, helping himself to your lemonade, _I'd_ never seen him before. At the time it seemed like the only logical explan-" Emma cut herself off when something occurred to her. She looked at Henry suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him and causing him to squirm. "You know who it is, don't you?"

"Who who is?"

"You know who Regina's True Love is."

Henry looked guilty. "I mean, I guess I do.."

Emma's mouth opened, but no words formed, causing her to sputter like a fool until she finally thought of something to say. "What the hell, kid? You've known and you haven't told me? Who is it?"

"I don't think I should say."

"Why not?"

"It's not my secret to tell." Henry shrugged casually, but Emma swore that if she heard one more person say that then she would kill them.

"Who else knows?"

Henry thought about it. "Me, Regina, Zelena..."

"Mary Margaret, David," Emma finished. "Pretty much everybody in this family but me."

"Pretty much." Henry nodded with a look that said 'what can you do?'

"How did you all find out? Did Regina tell you all?"

"No, we figured it out. It doesn't take a genius."

Emma sat back, wondering how on earth she was supposed to figure this out. It seemed that everyone else was having an easy enough time doing it, but she still had no clue. But, what Henry had said: it didn't take a genius? So it was someone obvious, exactly the person you would suspect...

"And I _definitely_ know this person?" Emma checked.

"Definitely."

So, who did Regina spend a lot of time with? Henry, Mary Margaret, David, Neal, Zelena, Robyn... it obviously couldn't be any of those. Granny? No way. _Gold_? No, he had Belle.

There was only one other person that Regina spent a lot of time around and that was... no, it couldn't be.

But what if...

Then a thought came to her, pushing the earlier idea out of her mind and filling her with horror. She looked at Henry, her eyes wide and alarmed. "Please tell me that it isn't Killian."

"What?" Henry looked at her in disbelief. "No!"

Emma let out a breath of relief. "Thank. God."

That just left one person in her mind, but that was totally wishful thinking. Wasn't it?

"Are we getting ice cream or what?" Henry asked impatiently.

Emma looked at her son and then nodded her head, opening the car door. She would think more about this later, when she was alone with her thoughts.

* * *

As soon as the door closed behind Emma, Regina turned back to the two men with an apologetic look on her face. "I'm so sorry about that, dear," She said to Freddie. "Miss Swan is... a crazy woman, evidently."

"It's cool," He shrugged it off. "Can't blame her for being jealous, right?"

Regina frowned at the mention of jealously. "Excuse me?"

"Well, she was clearly jealous," Freddie said, as if it were obvious. "That's why she overreacted. She assumed something that wasn't true because she didn't take the time to think about it properly. She just saw what it looked like and that was enough to make her crazy. Trust me, it was a classic jealous chick reaction."

While it wouldn't be all that unreasonable for someone's True Love to get jealous if they thought that their True Love was dating someone else, Regina had a hard time believing that Emma would get jealous if _she_ was seeing someone else. Emma didn't even love her.

"I can assure you, Miss Swan wasn't jealous. In fact, she's dating Killian Jones."

Freddie looked sceptical. "She might be for now, but trust me, she won't be for long. She was jealous."

Regina felt herself getting frustrated that she wasn't being listened to. "No, she wasn't."

"Then why else would she have gotten so angry about you being with someone else? Is that how _you_ react when you find out that someone you don't have feelings for has started seeing someone who isn't you?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Exactly." Freddie smiled smugly. "Jealous."

With that, Freddie sipped his lemonade and left Regina to stew in her own thoughts.

Was Emma really jealous? No one had ever been jealous because they were worried that someone else was seeing Regina before.

When Regina had thought that Emma was being extremely unreasonable, rash and reckless, she had found the blonde's behaviour infuriating and overbearing. But, if Freddie were right and Emma was jealous, then it was actually kind of... attractive.

The though that someone could get so passionate and hurt by Regina giving her attention to someone else was actually quite nice. It made her feel _wanted_ and special.

Regina wanted to see it again.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm sorry. My brain says, "Stop painting Emma as an idiot and make her figure out that _she's_ Regina's True Love", but my hands say, "LOL, no."**

 **Soon, though. Very soon.**

 **Also, I had to fit some jealousy in this story somewhere. Am I the only one who finds jealousy attractive? Probably. Ah well.**


	9. Chapter 9

"They're taking too long," Henry grumbled, resting his chin on his hands while he sat at the breakfast bar. Zelena was on the other side of it, making them some breakfast.

It was only yesterday that Emma had broken up with Killian, but Henry was already impatient. Emma and Regina should be together by now. This whole denial thing had gone on long enough.

"Emma is this close to realising that she loves my mom," Henry held up his thumb and index finger with only a tiny sliver of space between them. "She broke up with Hook, got totally jealous when she thought my mom was dating some other guy, and she knows that Regina has another True Love out there. It's only a matter of time before she realises that that True Love is her."

"I've been watching Regina," Zelena admitted while pouring some scrambled eggs on top of a slice of toast. "I'm pretty sure that she's falling for Emma all on her own. I don't know what your birth mother did that day that she ran into Regina with Neal outside Granny's, but it's like she put a spell on her. Before that day, Regina detested her, and now... well, she doesn't recoil at the mention of Emma's name."

"Progress."

"Hmm." Zelena turned and put one plate in front of Henry and one down in front of herself, then sat opposite the teen.

"So, can we start our plan now? Just to speed things up. I'll give Emma the hint that she needs to make her realise that she's Regina's True Love, then what I need you to do is take Regina to The Rabbit Hole tonight."

"What? Why?"

"Because Emma told me that she and my grandma are going there for a girls' night tonight. Something about cheering Emma up after her breakup. It's perfect. Emma, after just realising that she is Regina's True Love, goes out and gets drunk at the Rabbit Hole. Then, Regina walks in. Emma's inhibitions are lowered, she has all the liquid courage that she needs to go over there and tell my mom that she loves her!"

Zelena considered this for a moment. "I don't know if that's how it's going to go, Hen, but I suppose it can't do any harm. I'm in."

Henry grinned regardless of Zelena's lack of faith. "Operation SwanQueen is a go."

* * *

Emma was sitting in the Sheriff's Station, her feet on her desk, slowly rocking herself from side to side while she pondered things.

Regina was what she was pondering, specifically the fact that the brunette had _another_ True Love. Honestly. First Daniel, then Robin; how many True Love's did one person need?

Emma wanted more than anything to know who the person could be, and had even made a list of suspects in her notebook. The problem was that it was only one name long, and that one name was _her_ name.

At first, the idea had been preposterous, yet, the more she thought about it, the less insane it seemed. They got along like a house on fire (when they weren't arguing), and they shared a son. Besides, it would make a pretty cool love story. The Evil Queen and the Saviour; Henry's birth mother and his adoptive mother; the mayor and the sheriff. It was kind of romantic.

But, more than that, she and Regina made a great team. They were stronger together than they were apart, and had both been through so much crap throughout their lives that they could relate to one another on a level that no one else could relate to them. They were just as damaged as each other.

But did Emma even love Regina?

She pictured the brunette in her mind, wearing her classic mayor get-up of a tailored pantsuit or a tight dress, two outfits that screamed 'I am more powerful than you' every time she wore them. Emma smiled to herself and pictured Regina out of the office, on her more casual days, wearing a pair of jeans with a blazer, or yoga pants and a loose t-shirt (which she often wore on Friday nights when Emma stayed for dinner, then stayed the night if she had had a drink). Regina could really rock any look.

OK, so Emma loved the way that Regina dressed, but what else? She imagined Regina again, this time smirking at her in that sexy way that she did, usually when she proved Emma wrong about something. Emma pictured Regina raising an eyebrow in amusement when Emma said something stupid; giving her that 'you're an idiot' look that Emma knew all too well; the way that she looked down to hide the smile that threatened to overtake her features whenever she was trying to act angry at Emma; and who could forget when she smiled, genuinely smiled, with no guard, hindrance or hesitation. God, Regina had a beautiful smile.

She thought about her relationship with Regina, and how they bickered like a married couple. She thought about how fiercely protective Regina was of Henry, and how she would do anything to ensure that he was safe and happy. She thought about Regina's quick wit and how intelligent she was. She thought about how far she'd come since Emma first arrived in Storybrooke. The once-Evil-Queen was now kind and loving and close friends with her once-nemesis, Snow White.

Emma thought about how, for a long time now, Regina's health and happiness had been one of the most important things to her. Emma would do anything to make Regina happy, even risk her own life, even become the Dark One, it didn't matter to her as long as Regina was OK.

Emma closed her eyes and mentally kicked herself for not realising sooner. She was completely, undoubtedly, head-over-heels in love with Regina Mills. It seemed so obvious now, but why had it taken her so long to figure it out? Because she was an idiot, that was why. An idiot who hid her feelings, even from herself, out of fear of getting her heart broken through unrequited love.

Emma stayed like that for a long time, with her head resting against the back of her chair, thinking about Regina. She stayed like that until she was interrupted by her phone beeping, then she reached out blindly, feeling around for the device until she felt it at her fingertips. She picked it up and brought it to herself, opening her eyes to read the screen.

It was a WhatsApp message from Henry. She opened it, noticing that it was a video captioned 'Remember this?'

Emma pressed play and saw and image of herself fill the screen. She frowned down at her phone, trying to pinpoint when and where the video was recorded. It was only when Henry zoomed out a little, revealing Emma's red Christmas jumper, that she remembered it was taken on Christmas Eve at Regina's house.

 _Emma looked behind the camera, at whoever was recording (it was Henry, Emma knew) and pressed a finger to her lips, shushing him. She then crept through the hall, sneaking into the kitchen with the camera following hot on her heels. Regina came into view in the background, her back to the camera while she washed some dishes, though Emma ignored the brunette and instead headed straight for the breakfast bar, where a batch of freshly baked cookies in the shape of Christmas trees were laid out. Emma turned to the camera and grinned, then grabbed a couple of the cookies, one for her and one for Henry._

 _She started to leave the kitchen but realised that the cookies were hot. Very hot. She dropped them as though they had just given her third-degree burns and shook her hand, her face contorting in pain. She mouthed but didn't say, 'shit', which caused Henry to snort behind the camera._

 _"Careful, those are hot," Regina warned, although the brunette hadn't turned around. It was like she had eyes at the back of her head or something._

 _Emma's head snapped in the older woman's direction, then turned back to the camera as she rolled her eyes. Regina could be seen behind her, turning away from the sink and drying her hands, then walking over to where the plate of cookies sat._

 _"But because of what you just tried to pull, no cookies for you." She smirked at Emma and moved the plate across the room, away from the blonde._

 _Emma scowled and dipped her hand into the bag of flour which had been left out. "Spoilsport," She said, taking a pinch of the white powder and flicking it at Regina._

 _It peppered the front of Regina's black cashmere jumper with white flecks, causing Henry to say, 'Ooooooh', while Regina raised her eyebrows at Emma. Rising to the challenge, Regina dipped her hand in the bag, too, but she flicked the flour in Emma's face._

 _Emma closed her eyes to protect them, and by the time she opened them again, they had a playful glint in them. "It's on," She said, grabbing a handful of flour this time, and throwing it at Regina so that it went in her face, on her jumper and in her hair._

 _Regina looked shocked for a second, then looked like she was about to hit Emma for going too far. But, in the end, she laughed, which caused a white cloud to come away from her lips and nose. Emma laughed, too, her eyes on Regina the whole time as though Regina's laughter was a sight to behold._

 _Regina put her hand in the bag of flour, taking a handful, just like Emma, and throwing it at the blonde. Since Emma was laughing, she got some in her mouth and stuck her tongue out in disgust. Regina laughed louder and then when Emma reached for the bag, she picked it up and turned it upside down over Emma's head, causing the flour to pour all over her._

 _Emma gasped and lifted her hands up, grabbing Regina's wrists and pushing so that the flour in the bottom of the bag went over the brunette's head instead of hers. The camera was focused steadily on the two of them, even though Henry could be heard laughing in the background. They were covered in flour, pretty much from head to toe, and laughing so hard that they were almost gasping for breath._

 _The empty bag fell to the floor as Emma and Regina lowered their arms, but Emma kept her hold on Regina's wrists. Emma wasn't looking at the brunette anymore, but Regina was looking at her with a look that, if Emma didn't know any better, she would describe as love._

When the video ended, the picture on the screen was of Emma and Regina, facing each other, with their hands joined in the middle. Emma was smiling wider than she had ever seen herself smile, while Regina was smiling up at her fondly, with her eyes on Emma's lips.

If these two women were strangers, or if Emma didn't know what happened after the video, she would have assumed that they kissed. But Emma could remember that day and it most certainly didn't end with a kiss. Killian had come into the kitchen, looking around at the mess and asking what on earth was going on. Regina had pulled away, her mood decreasing significantly out of nowhere, and left to go and clean herself up. Emma remembered being confused about it at the time, the way that Regina had suddenly grown serious, but now, if Emma's suspicions were correct, it made sense.

It had been because of Killian, coming in and reminding Regina that Emma wasn't single. Regina had loved Emma and Emma had been dating someone else.

Damn. She was an idiot.

Emma stared at the image on her phone screen for a long time after that, until she heard voices and the clicking of heels approaching the room. She hastily sat up and locked her phone, not wanting anyone to see what she had been staring at. She was especially thankful that she had done that when David and Regina walked into the room.

"Another Deputy would really help us out," David was saying to the mayor, only glancing briefly at Emma to smile at her as he went to his desk. "Emma and I do back-to-back shifts more often than we'd like, sometimes spending twelve hours a day here and, Regina, I have a son to raise. I can't miss out on another of my children's childhoods, you know?"

Regina nodded her head, then looked at Emma. When she saw the blonde was looking at her, she hastily turned back to David. "Of course. Just give me the form I asked you to fill out and I'll have a look at your budget."

"Thank you so much," David said, rifling through the papers on his desk. "It's on here somewhere..."

Emma found that being in Regina's company had been a lot easier when she hadn't had her suspicions that they were each others' True Love. Now it was just awkward, especially as Regina kept glancing at her.

With David looking for the form, the room was filled with an uncomfortable silence. Well, for Emma and Regina it was uncomfortable, though David seemed to be concentrating too hard to notice. However, Emma soon thought of something to say to fill it. "I'm sorry about yesterday," She said sincerely, causing Regina to lift a brow at her. "I made an incorrect assumption about what that guy was doing in your kitchen, then completely overreacted. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I really am sorry."

"It's quite alright, dear. I appreciate the apology." Regina's eyes were shining like she knew something the blonde didn't. It made Emma quite uncomfortable.

"Here it is!" David triumphantly lifted a booklet of paper and handed it to Regina.

"Thank you, David," Regina said, then turned to Emma. "Have a good day, Miss Swan."

Again, there was a glint the brunette's eye that made Emma squint at her in suspicion. She looked smug, victorious, as though she had more power over Emma than usual. Why was she acting like that?

Emma watched her leave, then when she was out of sight, listened to the clicking of her heels until it had completely faded away. When David collapsed into his chair with a sigh, Emma turned back to her father.

"Did you find that weird?" She asked.

"Find what weird?"

"The look on Regina's face."

David's mouth turned down in contemplation, then he shrugged. "I didn't notice anything was different. I must have missed it."

Emma stewed on that for a moment before she shook her head, shaking away the image of Regina's peculiar look. More pressing issues were at hand, like the question that she wanted to ask her father.

"Is it me?" She asked tentatively, not wanting to embarrass herself.

"What?"

"Am I Regina's True Love?"

David looked at her with a little smile but didn't say anything. Emma narrowed her eyes at her father until he gave the minutest of nods and turned to his computer screen. It was all Emma needed to know the truth.

She was Regina's True Love.

Holy shit.

* * *

The Rabbit Hole was buzzing with people - some dancing, some kissing, some playing pool, _all_ drinking.

Emma was no exception to that last one, and she had just finished off her second bottle of beer.

She thought that she may as well make the most of this ridiculous evening. Mary Margaret had insisted that she take Emma out to help her forget about Killian, but as far as Emma was concerned, he was already forgotten. She hadn't thought of him much - or at all - since their breakup, mostly because of her revelation about Regina. Why would she waste her time thinking about the pirate, who she had become rather uninterested in while they were together, when she could instead think about that fact that she was Regina Mills' True Love?

The news was life changing and earth shattering and Emma couldn't quite believe it. In fact, it hadn't really sunk in yet. When she had told Mary Margaret, the brunette had squealed excitedly and said that she couldn't wait for Emma to share True Love's Kiss at last. _"There's nothing like it, Emma. It's simply_ magical _."_

But Emma felt distanced from the whole thing, as though it wasn't true, and she suspected that it was because the news was so huge that she would need time to digest it.

A couple of weeks ago, Emma was with Killian and she and Regina were nothing more than friends. But now, Emma and Killian were history and Regina didn't know who Emma was because of the forgetting potion that made her forget her True Love...

Wait...

Emma frowned at the empty space in front of her, where Mary Margaret had been seated a moment ago but had vacated to go and get more drinks. Regina knew that they were True Loves, knew that all it took was for them to kiss and she would get her memory back, but she hadn't said anything. She hadn't told Emma or tried in any way to build a relationship with her. She was just acting like they weren't True Loves at all...

Mary Margaret sat back down, sliding a beer to Emma while she sipped a pink cocktail. "You should try one of these," The brunette said, obviously not aware that Emma was in a world of her own. "They're so good and sweet and _fruity_."

"Regina doesn't want me," Emma voiced her realisation aloud, causing her mother to frown at her.

"What are you talking about, sweetie?"

"Regina knows that we're True Loves," Emma explained. "But she doesn't care. She doesn't want me to be her True Love, so she's pretending that I'm not and keeping it a secret from me."

"I'm sure that's not what she's doing. It's overwhelming to find out who your True Love is, Emma. She's probably just taking some time to accept it."

"I know it's overwhelming," Emma said bitterly. "I've recently experienced it myself. The difference between me and Regina, though, is that she hates me. When she found out that we're meant to be together, she went into denial because she didn't want it to be true. When I found out, I was..."

"You were what?"

"I don't know, I haven't really absorbed it yet, but... I can't believe how unbelievably lucky I am to have a True Love as amazing as her. I feel almost relieved that it's her. Like, I don't have to try to love her or be happy with her, it just comes naturally to me. I'm already in love with her, and I don't even know how long I have been because I didn't even realise that I was until today. But I do love her and all I want is to go and tell her, but I know that she doesn't want to be with me. She doesn't even _like_ me thanks to this potion."

"Emma..." Mary Margaret reached out to put her hand on top of Emma's, sounding sympathetic.

"This is just so... ugh!" Emma put her head on her arm, hiding her face. "I thought that finding your soulmate was supposed to be a happy event, but I just feel frustrated right now."

"It'll be OK," Mary Margaret offered reassuringly.

"What does this say about me? My True Love doesn't even want to be with me." Emma lifted her head and rested her chin on her hand.

"It doesn't say anything about you!" Mary Margaret insisted. "Regina taking that potion may be a setback, but all you need to do is kiss her and then she'll remember you! She'll love you like you love her."

"I'm not going to force myself onto her, mom. She doesn't want to kiss me, she doesn't want to know me, so I'm not going to make her do either."

Mary Margaret sighed and shook her head, but Emma didn't register it because her eyes had landed on the door, where two familiar faces were walking into the bar.

"Speak of the devil..." Emma said, sitting up straight to get a better view. "Regina and Zelena have just walked in."

* * *

"Why did I let you talk me into this?" Regina groaned. She paused in the doorway of the club, not wanting to go any further into the room packed with sweaty youths.

"Because I'm your sister and you want to spend time with me to make up for our tragic separation through childhood?" Zelena suggested, though her tone of voice said that even she knew that was a long shot. When Regina just gave her a look that said 'really?', Zelena tried again. "Because I'm a single mother who hasn't had a proper night out since the birth of her child and needs to let her hair down?" Again, Regina didn't look convinced, so Zelena rolled her eyes. "Come on, Regina, let's just let loose and have a good time, for once in our lives."

Regina scoffed. "I let loose plenty, thank you very much." When Zelena gave her a sceptical look, Regina folded her arms stubbornly. "And anyway, we could have had just as much fun at the house. I have alcohol, music," Regina winced as a boy in his mid-twenties, who was dry-humping a girl of a similar age, bumped into her. "And let's not forget decorum."

"Stop complaining." Zelena grabbed Regina's wrist and began to drag her towards the bar. "You'll be fine once you get a drink inside you."

When they got to the bar, Zelena indicated for Regina to sit on a stool, choosing to stay standing herself. The barman was too busy serving other people to notice them at first, so Regina impatiently drummed her fingers on the bar while they waited. Eventually, she glanced over her shoulder at Zelena, about to complain that they would never get served at this rate, but she noticed that the redhead wasn't looking at her. Instead, she had her back turned while she looked around the room as if there was someone in particular that she expected to see.

"Who are you looking for?" Regina asked, looking at the dance floor, then towards the booths on the left-hand side of the room, but not seeing anyone that she recognised.

Zelena turned back to face her a little too quickly for Regina to believe her answer. "Nobody," Zelena assured her. "But I need to use the bathroom. You should order a drink, and I'll," She glanced over her shoulder, again looking like there was someone she was trying to find. "Be right back." She finished distractedly, then wandered towards the bathrooms on the right.

Regina followed the redhead with her eyes, feeling suspicious. Zelena's behaviour was strange, but it wasn't the first time Regina had thought that and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last, which is why she didn't spend too long dwelling on it.

Of course, it was the time that Regina quickly shrugged her suspicions away that they turned out to be correct. As she started to turn back to the bar, planning on ordering herself a drink, a spark of blonde hair drew her attention like a beacon. The next thing she knew, her brown eyes were locking with the green eyes of Emma Swan.

Emma was sitting in one of the booths on the right-hand side of the room with Mary Margaret, who was not-so-covertly trying to sneak a glance at Regina. The blonde was clearly surprised to see Regina, though she made the effort to smile a little when they made eye contact. Regina didn't return it though, her brain taking too long to even register the friendly gesture and only snapping out of its daze when Emma's expression turned into one of discomfort at being stared at for so long. Regina promptly looked away, embarrassed.

Was Emma the person that Zelena had been looking for? Had Zelena known that the blonde would be here? If so, why hadn't she said anything? Why had she brought Regina here in the first place?

Unless Zelena actually had no idea that Emma would be here, in which case, it seemed like a weird coincidence that she would be on the same night as Regina. Regina felt like she couldn't escape the blonde. For the last few days, everywhere she had gone led to Emma Swan, including this club.

What was Regina even supposed to do in this situation? Go over to Emma and say hi? Ignore her and act like they didn't know each other? Sit and wait to see if Emma came over to her? Regina just didn't know.

She hadn't even seen Emma properly since the blonde's outburst at the mansion when she thought Regina was seeing someone else. God, Emma had been so jealous. Just thinking about it made Regina smirk to herself, loving that she had the power to make someone go crazy at the mere thought of her giving her affections to another person. It had been all Regina could think about when she saw Emma at the Sheriff's station earlier, and she hadn't been able to hide her satisfaction. Someone wanted her enough to react in such a way as Emma had, and Regina would pay to see it again.

"Wow. Regina Mills. I would have thought you wouldn't be caught dead in this place."

Regina forced the smirk off her face at the sound of Ruby Lucas' voice and instead turned to face the younger woman, who had appeared behind her sipping a cocktail through a straw, with a polite smile. "You would have thought correctly. This is hardly my scene." She sneered at her surroundings for good measure.

"Then what brings you?"

"My sister. Apparently, she wants us to let our hair down, though I'm starting to think that she has a hidden agenda." Regina looked past Ruby at Emma, who was now leaning to the side to get a better view of her, wearing a look of displeasure. What was her problem now?

"Why does everyone have to have an ulterior motive with you?"

"This is Zelena we're talking about. Need I remind you that she's notorious for her scheming?"

"Good point," Ruby acknowledged, then sat on the stool next to Regina. She put her hand on Regina's knee so that she could lean closer to the older woman and speak in mock secrecy. "Well, that doesn't mean that you can't have a good time anyway. How about I buy you a drink?"

Regina looked down at the hand that was now on her thigh. She knew better than to think that the proposition was flirty - it was simply Ruby being Ruby. But one glance at Emma, who was now starting to look angry while she watched the brunettes interact, and Regina realised that she could use this go her advantage. She wouldn't have to pay to see Emma jealous again - she just had to play her cards right.

With that in mind, she put her hand on top of Ruby's and gave a flirtatious smile. "I would love that."

* * *

"What the hell is she doing?" Emma demanded, watching Regina throw her head back laughing at something Ruby had said. "It looks like they're flirting. Doesn't it look like they're flirting? But why would they be? Isn't Ruby dating Dorothy? And, uh, hello, I'm Regina's True Love."

Mary Margaret rolled her eyes tiredly. "Sweetie, we're supposed to be having a nice night. Remember?"

"How can I have a nice night when my supposed True Love is about to hook up with another woman?"

Mary Margaret didn't look convinced that this was the case but turned to see what was going on between Regina and Ruby anyway. Regina was edging her stool closer to Ruby's, placing her hand dangerously close to the hem of the younger woman's dress which barely reached her mid-thigh. Mary Margaret turned back to Emma, shaking her head. "Regina wouldn't hook up with anyone else. She knows who her True Love is. Besides, when was the last time you saw Regina being so forward with someone? She's not the type to be so provocative in public."

"Well, what are you suggesting? That she's trying to make me jealous?" Emma was clearly dubious. She glanced at Regina, catching the brunette's eyes on her just for a second before Regina hastily turned away. That's when the penny dropped. "Holy shit... she's trying to make me jealous!"

"Emma, I never said-"

"No, it makes perfect sense. I kinda got jealous yesterday because there was his guy in her kitchen and, long story short, I thought they were sleeping together, so I may have gotten slightly annoyed and yelled a little."

"Oh God, Emma."

"I know, but maybe Regina knows that I acted that way because I was jealous. I mean, she knows that we're True Loves, so it's not difficult to connect the dots. Maybe she wants to see me jealous again and is using Ruby to do just that."

"I suppose..."

"Well, two can play at that game."

Mary Margaret closed her eyes. "I don't like the sound of this."

"She doesn't know that I know that we're True Loves," Emma said with the look of someone who had just had a brilliant idea. "She thinks that it's OK to flirt with other people? Fine by me. I'll show her how it feels to see your True Love flirting with someone else."

Before Mary Margaret could try to talk her out of it, Emma slid out of the booth and scanned the room, looking for a worthy assistant. Her eyes landed on a couple of guys playing pool. One of them was leaning against the wall while his friend set up, casually sipping a beer. He was tall, with dark hair, big muscles, tattoos on his arms and was undeniably attractive. Perfect for what Emma had in mind.

Emma hesitated when a thought came to her and she looked down at her clothes. She wasn't dressed sexily in any sense of the word. She was only supposed to be on a night out with her mother, so she had decided on skinny jeans and a grey, silk shirt. She didn't look _bad_ , but she would have preferred to look more sultry, would have preferred to be showing more skin, if she was going to be trying to attract someone. For the sake of her plan, she decided to pop open another button on her shirt, revealing the very top of her black, lace bra. It would have to do.

"Mind if I play?" Emma asked, slinking over to the tall guy.

The man turned to look at her, lifting an eyebrow at the request. His eyes roamed over her body while he blatantly checked her out, lingering at the spot where she had popped an extra button, before lifting back to her face with a smirk. "You can if you want, but I should warn you that I'm pretty good. You might not be able to handle it."

Emma scoffed. "I think I'll be just fine."

"Confident."

"And rightfully so."

The guy smiled at her like she'd just received his seal of approval. "You're on."

* * *

"Uh... Regina... You know that I have a girlfriend now, right?" Ruby's voice sounded nervous, causing Regina to look away from Emma and to her own hand, which was rubbing slow circles at the hem of Ruby's dress.

"I'm not trying to seduce you, Miss Lucas," Regina said, as though the idea alone was absurd. "You're simply a pawn right now."

"A... what are you talking about?"

Regina rolled her eyes and looked back towards the blonde, her interest in Ruby waning. "Just play along."

The reason that she was doing this - sitting so close to Ruby and caressing her leg - was to make Emma jealous, yet, Emma was currently talking to some guy across the room, laughing (or rather, _giggling_ ) at something that he had said. She didn't look at all bothered about what Regina was getting up to. Regina didn't understand. Wasn't Emma supposed to be interested in _her_?

Things only got stranger when the man walked over to the pool table, getting into position to break. Emma walked over to the opposite end, putting her hands on it and leaning forwards so her could see down her shirt. Regina watched as the man's eyes lifted, clearly checking out Emma's cleavage, before he smiled and stood up straight again. Regina could just about lipread him saying 'that's not fair!', but the room was too dark for her to make out much else.

"What is she playing at?" Regina said, half to herself and half to Ruby.

"Who?"

"Emma!"

Ruby followed Regina's gaze until she spotted Emma. "She's pulling," Ruby said proudly. "It's about time she ditched Killian. I've always told her than she can do better. Hook is more of a new-girl-every-week kinda guy, which is why I'm surprised they lasted so long. I still remember hearing about their first date and thinking 'it won't be long until I hear about their breakup'. Obviously I was wrong, though. They don't seem like a well-suited couple to me. When Emma came to Storybrooke, she aleady had trust issues, and Hook isn't exactly the most trustworthy guy. Anyway, wasn't Milah Hook's True Love? Which is another reason that he and Emma are a strange couple: Emma went from Milah's son to Milah's ex-lover? Weird."

Regina barely listened to Ruby's words, choosing to watch Emma closely instead. She watched as Emma walked over to the guy, she watched as she put her hand on his shoulder, she watched as she whispered something into his ear that made him grin in a predatory manner.

That was the last straw.

Regina jumped off her bar stool and stalked across the room, making a beeline for the blonde. When Emma saw her approaching, she stepped away from the guy, holding up her finger to say 'one minute', and taking a few steps to halve the remaining distance between her and Regina.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Regina immediately demanded, hands on hips.

"What do you mean?" Emma replied innocently.

"Well, it looks to me like you're throwing yourself at that guy."

"Do you have a problem with that?"

Regina saw the challenge in Emma's eyes and chose her next words carefully. "No. But I don't think your boyfriend would be very happy if he knew what you were doing."

"Killian and I broke up," Emma informed her. "So, it's not really any of his business what I do." She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "Or, should I say, _who_ I do."

Regina clenched her jaw at the thought of Emma actually having sex with this guy. She narrowed her eyes at the blonde, trying to figure out what she was up to. This wasn't part of the plan. Emma was supposed to be driving herself crazy with envy at the sight of Regina flirting with Ruby, not planning to sleep with a guy she'd just met while not caring what Regina was doing.

Emma had already demonstrated that she would hate it if Regina were seeing someone else, so why the sudden change of heart?

"So, are we done here?" Emma asked. "I'd like to get back to... you know."

Regina did her best not to let her irritation show. "As you were," She allowed Emma to go, only turning around herself when Emma was back at the side of the man.

As Regina began to walk away, she heard Emma ask for help with her next shot and had to force herself not to turn around. She managed to get back to her stool, where Ruby was still sitting and had just ordered another drink, before glancing back to the pool table she had just left.

Emma was now leaning over it with a cue in her hand, aiming for her shot. Meanwhile, the guy she was playing against came up behind her, pressing his front against her back as he helped her get into a better position.

Regina scowled and noticed Emma glancing at her, as if checking to see that she was watching. That made Regina stand up again, though this time she grabbed Ruby's hand and started dragging her towards the dance floor.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked, confused.

"Let's dance," Regina said by way of explanation, stopping when she was close enough to the pool table that she knew Emma would have a good view.

She pulled Ruby close to her as she began to move in time to the music, resting her hands on the younger woman's hips and trying her hardest to look sensuous.

"OK..." Ruby went along with it, not touching Regina but dancing in her own sexy way. "But can I ask why you're using me?"

"No." Regina knew that the truth would make her sound crazy, especially because she had no real reason to want to make Emma jealous.

"This is so weird..." Ruby decided.

Regina was already becoming distracted, turning Ruby so that she could look at Emma while they danced. The blonde had noticed the brunettes dancing together and didn't look happy, which annoyed Regina all the more. So she could flirt but Regina couldn't? Talk about double standards.

To make matters worse, Emma, still bent over the table, moved her body backwards so that the man's was flush against hers practically from head to toe. It made Regina fume, so she span Ruby around so that her back was against Regina's front and began to grind her hips into the younger woman from behind, engaging in this strange game of one-upmanship.

"You remember that I have a girlfriend, right?" She heard Ruby ask and rolled her eyes in response.

"Yes. Dorothy, the girl with the dog."

"Just checking."

Emma, seeing this, stood up and faced the man, still watching Regina over his shoulder but putting the front of their bodies together. Regina dug her fingers into Ruby's hips and pulled her closer. Emma put her hands on the mans shoulders. Regina brushed her lips against the shell of Ruby's ear. Emma grabbed the man's face and pulled him towards her, crashing their lips together heatedly.

That crossed the line. Regina pushed Ruby out of the way, the only thing on her mind being putting a stop to this right now. She stormed over to Emma, physically grabbing her and pulling her away from the man, who looked dazed from the kiss, but quickly turned angry when he saw it was Regina who had put a stop to it.

"What the hell?" He demanded, but Regina was already dragging Emma far away from him.

As soon as they were out of the way of the dance floor, Regina turned on Emma. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but I want you to stop. Now."

"I was only having fun, same as you and Ruby."

"Ruby and I were..." Regina trailed off as Emma's words repeated in her mind. _Same as you and Ruby_. She belatedly realised what Emma had been up to. "You were trying to make me jealous, weren't you?" Do you know?"

"Know what?" Emma asked, folding her arms across her chest. "That we're True Loves? Yes, I recently became privy to that information."

Regina shook her head. "So, you find out that _we're_ True Loves and immediately go and flirt with someone else?"

"What's wrong with that? You know that we're True Loves and you don't give a damn. Who even decides who peoples True Love's are? It's just a title, it doesn't mean anything."

Regina let out a laugh. "You know what? You're right. It doesn't. Yet you still thought that you could make me jealous. You thought that you could mess with me. Oh, Miss Swan, I'd be careful if I were you. You're playing with fire."

"I think you're forgetting, Regina, that I know you a lot better than you know me right now. The vein on your forehead looks like it's about to burst, so if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say I _did_ make you jealous."

Regina scoffed, but she could feel her heart race increasing as she realised that Emma was right. Seeing the blonde with someone else had made her livid and envious and everything that Emma had felt upon thinking Regina was sleeping with Freddie. That didn't stop her from saying, "You're delusional."

"Keep telling yourself that."

"And infuriating."

"Sure."

"And pig-headed."

"I'll take your word for it."

Emma looked cocky and smug, making Regina's blood boil, but still her eyes flickered down to the blonde's lips. If they weren't True Loves, and if it wouldn't have had such huge complications, Regina might have kissed her. She didn't even know why, she just had the strongest urge to.

However, she instead turned around and walked away, hoping that getting home and getting some rest might disentangle her thoughts.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you all for the reviews, favourites and follows so far. You're all incredible.**

 **This fic is only going to have one or two more chapters left, I haven't decided which yet. However, I will tell you that the next chapter features Regina's birthday. Is that a good enough incentive for you to stick around until next time? ;)**


	10. Chapter 10

Emma decided the next day that this whole thing was ridiculous.

She and Regina were True Loves, so what the hell were they doing? Playing games, trying to make each other jealous, and not doing the one normal thing and _actually being together._

Well, Emma had had enough. She loved Regina and wanted them to be together. Once the two of them had kissed and Regina had got her memories back, they could finally do just that... as long as Regina loved her too. But if the brunette did? That would mean their lunch dates in the mayor's office really would be dates; she, Regina and Henry would be a real little family; and when they had dinner together at the mansion, Emma would get to spend the night, and not just in the guest room. How perfect would that be?

Emma would be able to walk hand in hand with the sexiest, smartest, wittiest woman in Storybrooke and proudly call her her girlfriend. Hell, she'd be able to proudly call her her True Love. It didn't get much better than that.

It was with these thoughts in mind that Emma drove her bug to the town hall and marched to Regina's secretary's desk.

"Sheriff Swan, it's good to see you. I wasn't expecting-"

"I need to see Regina. Now," Emma demanded, not wanting to lose her confidence.

The secretary seemed taken aback at Emma's bluntness, but quickly recovered and dialled for Regina's office, leaving the phone on speaker.

"Yes?" Regina's voice came through, muffled through the bad-quality phone, but distinctly Regina.

"Mayor Mills, Sheriff Swan is here to see you."

There was a sigh and then, "I don't have time for this. Tell her I'm in a meeting or-"

Emma didn't stay to hear the rest of the excuse. She stormed past the secretary's desk to the door of Regina's office, purposefully opening it and striding into the room. Regina's finger was still on the button for the intercom, but she immediately lifted it when she saw Emma burst in.

"Miss Swan! I said I was in a meeting."

"And I knew it was bullshit," Emma said, indicating to the office that was clearly empty apart from herself and Regina.

"That's beside the point. I-"

"Can we cut the crap?" Emma said, leaning on Regina's desk so that she was towering over the brunette. "I'm so sick of these games that we're playing. We're _True Loves_ , Regina. Surely that means we should just be together."

"I don't think-"

"Just hear me out. The universe has decided that we'll be good together, so, who are we to argue with the universe? We can't beat fate. Also, we _would_ be good together. I know what you're thinking: ' _the Evil Queen and the Saviour? Ridiculous_.' But the Evil Queen and the Saviour were best friends before you took the forgetting potion - _we_ were best friends before you took the forgetting potion - so I know that we would be good together. You and I just click Regina. You've tried to hate me once before when I first came to Storybrooke, but it didn't last and now I know why. It's because we're True Loves. We couldn't stay away from each other even if we tried."

Regina shook her head and pushed her jaw forward unhappily. "I'd like to start off by informing you that I resent your implication that life is so deterministic. I like to think I make my own decisions autonomously, thank you very much."

"Maybe if you had your memories back you would autonomously make the decision to be with me," Emma mumbled.

"I don't know how you suggest that I get my memories back."

"True Loves Kiss-"

"Wouldn't work," Regina interrupted with a shake of her head. "We have to be in love for True Loves Kiss to work. And that's just the thing, Miss Swan. I don't love you."

Emma stood up straight and folded her arms across her chest, trying to keep her face neutral to hide how much unrequited love hurt her. She didn't know what to say, but then a thought came to her that made her frown. "Wait... does that mean you'd have had to have been in love with me for the forgetting potion to make you forget me?"

Regina looked down, confirming what Emma was thinking.

"You were in love with me," Emma said, a little breathlessly. "But you never said anything."

"I presume I didn't say anything because you were with the pirate," Regina speculated quietly. "Though I obviously can't know for sure because I don't remember."

"But you _were_ in love with me?"

"The potion worked, so that seems to be the case, yes."

Emma couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had spent a long time denying her feelings for Regina, even to herself, and the thought that Regina might have been doing the same thing...

Or maybe Regina _hadn't_ been denying it to herself. Maybe she had known how she felt - known that she had loved Emma - and just not wanted to say anything because Emma was with Killian.

"That makes sense," Emma said, thinking out loud. "You said that you took the forgetting potion because you were hurt emotionally, and when you forgot me, it didn't hurt anymore. Well, maybe you were hurting because you loved me, yet you had to watch me be with someone else. When you forgot me, you forgot how you felt about me, and you didn't have to deal with unrequited love anymore."

Regina watched Emma closely but didn't actually say anything. Her jaw was clenched and her expression stolid, not giving Emma anything to go on in terms of what she was thinking.

"You don't have to worry about Killian anymore," Emma said, stepping towards the desk. "It's always been you, Regina. I didn't know it back then, but I know it now, and you're the only person that I want to be with."

"Let me make myself clear, Miss Swan." Regina leant forwards and looked Emma in the eye while she said, "I. Don't. Want. To. Be. With. You."

Emma frowned. "But if you just got your memories back then you would see-"

"I'm not going to get my memories back," Regina stated. "I don't love you. There'll be no True Loves Kiss."

"It won't hurt to try."

"You are so frustrating!" Regina lost her composure for a second, but quickly recovered it. She stood up, calmly smoothed the front of her dress and sighed. "Why is it so hard for you to understand that I don't want to remember you? I don't want to kiss you and I don't want to be with you. I think it's best if you go now."

"But-"

" _Leave_. Now."

Emma frowned at Regina and didn't move for a second. But she could feel her heat breaking in her chest and she didn't want the brunette to see her getting upset, so she turned and left the office, closing the door behind her.

* * *

Regina decided to treat herself to lunch from Granny's after Emma's impromptu visit to her office. The blonde had stressed her out, and she needed something to make herself feel better.

See, Regina would insist until her dying breath that she didn't have feelings for Emma. She would insist that she found the blonde stubborn and arrogant and insufferable. She would insist that Storybrooke was a better place before Emma had arrived in it. And who did Emma think she was, barging into Regina's office like that? It was rude. Plus, Emma didn't know how to take 'no' for an answer.

But then Regina's traitorous brain would argue that Emma was terribly attractive. She fought for what she wanted (in this case, Regina), which wasn't a bad quality to have. Yes, she was stubborn, but so was Regina. Emma was also persistent which, while it could be incredibly annoying, it could also be flattering because the thing that she was persistently fighting for was having Regina in her life. She lacked manners and was impulsive, but if she pushed things too far then she'd turn adorably sheepish so that, even if Regina tried to stay mad, it wouldn't last.

And Regina had thought about the blonde with something akin to fondness when seeing her spending time with her Neal; and she liked the thought of someone like Emma being her True Love and caring about her enough to always put her first; and seeing Emma jealous had been the highlight of her week...

So, Regina was conflicted. Torn between love and hate... well, not _love_. It was much too soon to call it - whatever it was - love. But her feelings towards Emma were mixed and not as black and white as she would like them to be, and that infuriated Regina.

Feeling worn out and confused and in desperate need of a pick-me-up, Regina went to Granny's to get a chicken salad sandwich and a cup of coffee for her lunch to make herself feel better. Seeing as it was just before rush hour, the diner was quiet and had very few customers. In fact, as Regina stood at the counter and waited for Ruby to come from the kitchen to serve her, she could hear the conversation of the people sat in the corner of the room. She didn't intend to eavesdrop, but when she realised that the voice she was listening to belonged to her son, she couldn't ignore it even if she wanted to.

"The plan should have worked! How could you let it fail?" he was saying accusingly to... Regina glanced over her shoulder and saw _Zelena?_ What were those two up to? What plan were they talking about?

"It wasn't my fault!" Zelena insisted with a huff. "Your mum _ditched_ me at the Rabbit Hole. I spent half an hour looking for her before realising she wasn't even bloody there anymore. I thought that was a good thing at first. I suspected your mothers had gotten together and gone home to... you know, be intimate."

Henry wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Those are my _moms_ , Aunt Zelena. I don't want to think about them... being intimate."

"Anyway," Zelena shook her head. "Then I saw Emma with her mother, so I knew that that hadn't happened. Besides, I spoke to Regina on the phone this morning and she was in a dreadful mood. Certainly not post-coital bliss."

"Just stop talking," Henry held up his hand to stop his aunt, then sighed and covered his face with his hands. "What are we gonna do now? We need another plan."

Regina narrowed her eyes at the pair in suspicion. She intended to find out exactly what was going on, so she left the counter and strode over to the corner booth, where her sister and son were talking about her love-life. "A plan for what?" she asked as she reached the table, putting her hands on her hips.

The teen and the redhead looked at each other with deer-caught-in-headlights expressions, then slowly turned to look at Regina like they were schoolchildren who had just been caught misbehaving by their teacher. Regina lifted an eyebrow, her way of saying, 'well?', which made Zelena clear her throat.

"Our plan to make you happy," she said calmly. "You haven't been yourself lately, so we wanted to cheer you up."

Regina looked incredulous. "Really? Because it sounded like you were talking about my relationship with Emma and planning a way to get us together."

"What?" Zelena scoffed. "No. I mean, yes, we mentioned you and Emma, but we're not planning to get you together. It was purely coincidental that she was at the Rabbit Hole last night."

"Really?" Regina asked sceptically.

"Of course."

"I'm having a hard time believing that."

Zelena rolled her eyes. "Henry and I aren't _cupid_ , Regina. It's not our job to make people fall in love. Besides, why on earth would we try to set the two of you up when you've made it perfectly clear that you can't stand her?"

"You tell me." Regina folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow. The pair remained silent though, so she continued. "I know that Henry wants us to be together."

"I want you to stop fighting," Henry corrected. "And I want the two of you to be happy. You were always happy when you were together before you took the forgetting potion."

"Exactly," Zelena agreed. "I only mentioned that I thought you had gone home with Emma last night because, if you had, surely that would make you happy, which is our primary focus here. Isn't that right, Henry?"

"Totally." The teen nodded vigorously, but he was a terrible liar. His voice adopted a tone that was too high and squeaky, and he was nodding a little too enthusiastically.

"So, you have a plan to make me happy?" Regina asked, not bothering to hide her doubts. "May I ask what this plan entails then?"

"Well," Zelena glanced at Henry. "We want to remind you that you have a family who loves you, which is why..."

"Your birthday!" Henry exclaimed, earning the attention of both women. His shoulders sagged as he tried to act casual again, though it had been clear that he had just had an idea. "Your birthday is next Saturday, right?" he asked Regina.

"Yes..."

"Well, we're planning a party for you."

"Yes, we are," Zelena agreed with a smile. Their lie had unfolded perfectly, Regina thought bitterly. "It was supposed to be a surprise but, damn you, Regina, you managed to wheedle it out of us. We're planning a simple soiree at the mansion so that you can be surrounded by your closest friends and family. Snow and I can cook dinner for everyone, there will be conversation and drinks... the perfect night to celebrate your special day. Simple and quiet, because we know you won't want to make a big hoo-ha."

"Sounds lovely," Regina said, and it wasn't untrue. It did sound like a nice evening. She motioned for Zelena to move over so that she could join her sister and son in the booth. "So, who's on the guest list?"

"Us three, obviously," Zelena said. "And who else would you like to invite?"

"Just family," Regina stated, not wanting her birthday to be a fuss. "Us three, Robyn, David, Snow and Neal."

"Are my ears burning?" A voice came from behind Regina, and she turned to see that David was walking towards their booth with Snow and Neal close behind.

"Don't worry, we were just talking about Regina's birthday next Saturday," Zelena informed the new arrivals. "We're going to have a little shin-dig at the mansion and you three are on the guest list."

"Sounds lovely," Mary Margaret said with a smile. Celebrations of any kind were right up her alley. "Who else is coming?"

"Just family," Regina said again. "So, you three," she pointed to Snow, David and Neal. "Us three," she indicated to herself, Zelena and Henry.

"What about Emma?" Henry asked.

Regina turned to him with a sigh. Of course he would want his other mother there, but Regina really didn't want the blonde to attend. The lovely, quiet evening wouldn't be so lovely or quiet if Emma Swan was in attendance. It would be messy and confusing and Regina would have to deal with the million things that the sheriff made her feel, even on her birthday which should be a joyful occasion.

No, Emma's presence would make things too hard for her, so Regina tried to find a way that she could tell Henry and let him down gently.

But before she could settle on anything, a familiar voice came from behind her. "Don't worry about it, kid," Emma said, hands stuffed into the pockets of her coat as she joined her parents at the side of the table. "Your mom and I are giving each other some space at the moment, and I have a shift at the station that day, anyway." She put her hand on Henry's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

Henry seemed disappointed and looked down at the table, but he didn't argue.

"That settles it then," Regina said. "Miss Swan will be unable to attend. Though the rest of you will be able to make it?"

There were nods around the table, but Regina was looking at Emma, who was staring down at the floor with an unhappy expression. Did she even have a shift at the sheriff's station? Or was she just saying that because she knew Regina wouldn't want her there? Regina hoped that it wasn't the latter because Emma looked so sad and Regina's damn confusing feelings were making her feel guilty about that.

Sick of _feeling_ things, Regina looked down and rose from her seat. "I need to get back to the office, so I think I'll take my lunch to-go," she stated, just wanting to get away from the group for now. How had they all been in Granny's at the same time anyway? Storybrooke needed more diners.

Regina slid from the booth and went over to the counter, hearing her family start talking jovially behind her. When Regina glanced to the side, though, she saw Emma making a quiet getaway.

* * *

Zelena was humming in the kitchen while she made a Sunday roast for Regina's birthday 'soiree'. She had spent all day ignoring Henry's argument that it was _Saturday_ , not _Sunday,_ so how could they have a Sunday roast? But it was the only thing that Zelena could make well, so she was making it regardless of what day it was. However, she had enlisted Henry's help and was forcing him to do anything that would result in her getting her hands messy. That happened to be most of the tasks.

Mary Margaret was supposed to be bringing dessert, though she, David and Neal hadn't arrived yet.

That left Regina to wander around the house, making sure the dining room table was set out perfectly, making sure the music was neither too loud nor too quiet and making sure the living room was tidy and there was enough room for everyone to sit.

Once she was sure everything was in order, she walked into her study and perched on the couch. She wasn't sure what had drawn her to that particular room, probably a subconscious desire to not disturb the living room or dining room which were currently pristine and ready for the guests, but she felt the need to escape and spend a minute by herself.

It was her birthday. She should be happy. She already had her sister and son with her, she was about to have more of her family with her; she was loved and valued and that was all she had ever wanted.

But something was missing. She didn't know what, but she knew that there was something. At first, she had though that it was Robin, but the more she thought about it, the more she knew that that wasn't right. Then, her brain had thought that it might be Emma. She _was_ her True Love, after all.

Regina dismissed it, finding the notion absurd, but... she looked to the side, where the blonde's red leather jacket was sitting on the couch. She'd never even seen Emma wearing it - at least, she didn't _remember_ seeing Emma wearing it - but it had come to be a symbol of her in Regina's mind. She could picture Emma in it so clearly, with her blue skinny jeans and a white tank top, that it was almost like a memory. Again, that was absurd.

Regina picked up the jacket and put it on her lap. God knows what had possessed Emma to buy it in the first place, but Regina could tell that the jacket was well-worn. It was either old, or Emma wore it a lot. Regina didn't know which was true, but she found both to be believable.

She lifted the material to her nose and inhaled deeply. It smelt of a person (Emma, presumably) and Regina found the scent to be intoxicating. It was pleasant and warm and made Regina relax. She leaned back on the couch and continued to smell the jacket whilst thinking, _could this be what's missing? Emma Swan?_

A knock on the front door prevented Regina from following that thought thread and startled her enough that she pulled the jacket away from her nose lest she be caught smelling it like some sort of crazy person. She forced all thoughts of the blonde out of her head as she stood and walked through the hall to the front door, which she opened to greet her guests.

"Happy Birthday!" Snow and David shouted as soon as the door was open.

Neal, who was perched on Mary Margaret's hip, squirmed and hid his face in his mother's neck at the loud noise, so Regina reached out to tickle his side to calm him and make him smile again. "Thank you," she said to the couple while she did this. "You can both come in."

She stepped to the side of the door so that the trio could enter. Mary Margaret entered first, but stood behind Regina while David entered. He was carrying a bottle of red wine and a wrapped present. He held the wine out to Regina, so she told him to put it in the kitchen and thanked him for bringing it, then said he could put the gift in the living room with the ones that Zelena and Henry had gotten her.

While David followed his instructions, Regina turned to Mary Margaret, who was frowning at her hand. "Is that Emma's jacket?" she asked.

Regina felt her cheeks develop a pink glow as she realised she was still holding the red leather jacket in her hand. "Yes, I just found it," Regina lied for the sake of her dignity. "Emma must have left it here at some point."

"Oh," Mary Margaret nodded. Regina half expected the other woman to offer to take it to her daughter when she left, but she instead turned and headed for the kitchen, saying something about putting the dessert that she'd brought into the fridge.

Alone in the hall, Regina turned to the coat closet, opened the door and hung the red leather jacket up.

 _Out of sight, out of mind_ , Regina thought.

* * *

"Dinner should be ready in about half an hour," Zelena announced, joining Regina, Henry, Snow, David, Neal and Robyn in the living room.

Henry was sitting on the floor, playing with Neal. Robyn was asleep in her cot. Regina, David and Snow were chatting, all with drinks in their hands, though Regina was sticking to non-alcoholic until they had eaten dinner. But with Zelena's announcement, Mary Margaret sat forward excitedly.

"Just enough time for presents!" she squealed, standing up so that she could bring them over for Regina to open.

Regina rolled her eyes, but accepted the first one that was passed to her. Zelena sat next to her so that she could watch, and Regina became aware that all eyes were on her. Even Henry and Neal had stopped playing so that they could watch her. God, she hated birthdays.

"Who's this from?" she asked, shaking the box to try and guess what it was.

"Oh, that's mine," Henry said with a smile.

Regina lifted an eyebrow at him and began tearing the paper. She should have guessed that it was Henry's with how clumsily it was wrapped. No matter how many times she tried to show him the correct way to wrap presents, he still managed to make it look messy, with too much paper and too much tape. It was because of all the tape that Regina had a hard time finding a way in, but she eventually found a bit of paper that she could pull.

She pulled the paper off and tossed it onto the floor to be cleaned up later, then turned the gift over so she could see what it was. It turned out to be a picture frame, with a picture of Regina and Henry on Christmas day in it. They were sat next to each other at the dinner table, and that's where they are in the picture, leaning close together for the picture and smiling widely with genuine happiness. The bottom of the frame had the word 'family' on it in beautiful cursive.

"I thought you could put it on your desk at work," Henry explained. "Since the most recent picture you have of me on there is from when I was, like, nine years old."

Regina smiled down at the picture and said, "I love it, honey. It's beautiful. I'll take it with me on Monday."

Her attention was mostly focused on her smiling son in the picture, simply because he looked so happy that it filled her with motherly pride. Yet she still briefly looked at herself; briefly because something else caught her eye. On the far left of the picture, next to Regina, was part of a head of blonde hair. Even though the person was only partly in the frame, Regina knew undoubtedly who it was straight away.

Emma Swan.

Regina closed her eyes for a second and put the frame onto the coffee table. She couldn't escape the other woman, no matter what she was doing, even when she was trying to keep the blonde out of her thoughts.

Maybe the universe did have more control of her life than she would like to think, and it loved to mess with her.

"Shall I open my next present?" Regina said, pushing Emma out of her mind yet again.

Mary Margaret stood and handed her another gift, a smaller one this time, somewhere between the size of a ring box and a necklace box. Regina shook it again, but other than a slight rattling, it didn't make a noise that could help her figure out what it was. She noticed that it was as clumsily wrapped as Henry's had been, though there was less tape so she was able to get into it pretty easily.

"Who is this from?" Regina asked as she began to open it.

Silence greeted her. She pulled the paper away completely and tossed it to the floor, looking at the box, which looked like it contained an item of jewellery or something. But she didn't open it. She looked up to find out who had given it to her, only to find Zelena, Mary Margaret and David looking at one another in confusion. Only Henry didn't seem confused, but he was staring at the floor and fiddling with one of Neal's toys.

"Henry?" Regina lifted an eyebrow at him.

He sighed. "Emma asked me to give it to you."

"Em- Emma?" Regina said in disbelief, because _seriously_ this woman was inescapable. "Why would she do that? She knows that I don't want anything to do with her."

"She'd already gotten the present though, before the whole forgetting potion happened. Emma had no use for it, so she wanted you to have it, even if you hate her."

Regina held the box towards Henry, urging him to take it from her. "Tell her that I don't-"

"Just open it," Henry interrupted tiredly.

Regina would normally protest, but her son sounded so drained that she felt guilty about what she was putting him through. He was having to put up with his parents fighting and not speaking, and that must have been difficult for him. So, Regina sighed and did as he asked. She could give him this, at least.

Regina leaned back and pulled open the jewellery box, revealing the broach that Emma had bought her. It was a beautiful gold broach, with cream roses on it, and Regina recognised it immediately. She had seen this broach in a store window when they had all gone to New York in pursuit of Henry and Violet. She had stopped briefly to stare at it, because it was stunning and she would have loved to own it, but it was ridiculously expensive and Regina had been too busy with magical mishaps to dwell on it for too long.

But here it was, in her hands, and Emma Swan had been the one to buy it for her.

"How did she know?" Regina asked in shock.

"She was there with you when you first saw it," Henry explained, because obviously Regina didn't remember Emma being there. "She knew how much you loved it, and she wanted you to have it. So, she went to New York a few weeks ago to buy it."

Regina looked at her son open-mouthed. New York was a long way to go for a broach, and it must have cost Emma a fortune. "Why would she do that?"

"Because she knew it would make you happy. That's all Emma's wanted for years now. It's why she became the Dark One."

This was new information to Regina, so she frowned in confusion. "I'm sorry, she did _what_?"

"She became the Dark One for you. The darkness was going to take you again, but Emma said that you'd worked too hard for your happiness for it to be destroyed. She became the Dark One so that you could get your Happy Ever After.

Regina looked back down at the broach, feeling her heart rate accelerating to a dangerous rate. She was distantly aware of Zelena looking at the broach from next to her, and of her saying, "Wow. It's gorgeous," and she was distantly aware of the fact that everyone was staring at her.

But all she could think about was that Emma wanted her to be happy. That's all she wanted. And she'd done so much for her to try and make it happen, even giving Regina the broach when the brunette hadn't been all that kind to her as of late. She could have sold it, got her money back because Regina knew that this broach wasn't cheap. But Emma had given it to her regardless, because Regina's happiness meant that much to her.

If that wasn't love, then Regina didn't know what was.

She stood up without thinking and wandered away from the couch, towards the doorway. "Where are you going?" Henry asked from behind, and Regina didn't know.

At least, she didn't know until she was asked. Her subconscious knew all along, and it seeped into her consciousness so that she answered. "To find Emma."

"What about dinner?" Zelena protested. "I've been slaving away in that kitchen for-"

"Zelena!" Mary Margaret hissed, seeming to know that Regina may change her mind at any moment and should be left to do her thing.

But Regina didn't stop. She opened the door to the mansion and walked down the path with a newfound determination, still carrying the box with the broach in it. When she was halfway down the path, she stopped, hesitated, and walked back, but only to grab the damn red leather jacket from the coat closet, and then she headed for her car to go to the sheriff's station.

* * *

Emma looked at the clock on the wall, expecting at least twenty minutes to have passed since the last time she checked the time.

No, it had only been five.

She sighed and began to rock her chair back and forth, her feet propped up on her desk. Time was moving at an excruciatingly slow pace, and she knew that it was because it was Regina's birthday. Her parents and her son were at Regina's mansion, spending her special day with her. Meanwhile, Emma was in the sheriff's station on the night shift, because she hadn't been invited.

Before all of this, she was Regina's best friend. She knew that she would have been invited to Regina's birthday celebrations in the blink of an eye - the brunette would never even have considered _not_ inviting her.

But now everything had changed. Emma was no longer welcome in Regina's life and it broke her heart. She missed her best friend, she missed spending time with her, seeing her smile and hearing her laugh. She missed bickering with her like an old married couple and worrying about how quickly Henry was growing up with her. She just missed Regina, even though the brunette hadn't physically gone anywhere. But she had emotionally checked out of any relationship that she and Emma had had, which was killing Emma inside.

But, at the end of the day, all she wanted was for Regina to be happy. That was why she was giving her some space, and that was why she had given Henry the broach and asked him to give it to his other mother. Regina had fallen in love with that broach as soon as she saw it in New York, but she hadn't been able to buy it because they were much too busy. So, Emma had gone back to the Big Apple a few weeks later and bought it for the brunette, and imagined how Regina's face would light up when she was given it every day since then.

She wanted Regina to have it, even if Emma couldn't be the one to give it to her personally, though the blonde had been worrying all day about how Regina would react to it. Would she remember it and love it just as much as she had the first time she saw it? Or would she hate it simply because Emma had been the one to buy it for her? There was no way Emma could know, at least until she spoke to Henry, which would probably be the next day.

Emma looked at the clock again, but the minute hand didn't seem to have moved. Had Regina opened the gift yet? What was she doing now? Was she enjoying her birthday?

Emma was in desperate need of something to distract her from thoughts of the mayor.

As if the universe could hear her thoughts and decided to do her a solid, the phone on her desk rang.

"Storybrooke Sheriff's Station," She answered formally.

She grabbed a notebook and scribbled down an address. There was a missing child, apparently, and the frantic parents were begging Emma to help find him.

A missing kid made it a lot easier to forget about Regina.

* * *

As Regina pulled her Mercedes onto Main Street, she swore she saw the sheriff's patrol vehicle turning the corner at the other end, leaving the station.

It was only a brief glimpse, so she wasn't sure, but when she got to the car park for the station, she noticed the absence of the cruiser and knew that she had seen correctly. Still, that didn't mean Emma had been the one to leave. It could have been one of the deputies.

Regina parked and exited her car, walking the familiar path through the doors to the station, up the stairs, through the outer office where one of the deputies was working (though he barely even looked up at the mayor's arrival, seeing as she was a regular visitor), and into the sheriff's office.

It was empty. Great. That meant Emma _had_ been the one to leave.

Regina sighed in annoyance and turned around, but she didn't particularly want to leave. She could just stay and wait. Crimes in Storybrooke were usually minor, anyway, and didn't take too long to deal with. What were the chances that Emma would be gone long?

Regina walked over to the desk and sat down. It was definitely Emma's desk if the picture of Henry was anything to go by, which sat next to a dirty coffee cup and some kind of handheld gaming console. Why on earth had she assigned the role of sheriff to a child?

As Regina thought this, she started to shiver. She hadn't put a coat on as she left the house, and winters in Maine made the sheriff's station a little chilly. Regina wrapped her arms around herself for warmth, noticing as she did this the broach box in her right hand and the red leather jacket in her left.

Well, Regina was nothing if not resourceful.

She stood up, but the broach box on the desk, then put on the red leather jacket. It was a little too big for her, so the sleeves came halfway down her hands, but it was cosy and surprisingly comfortable and it surrounded her in the warm, vanilla Emma-scent.

She sat back down, pulled the jacket tightly around herself, and waited.

* * *

 _Missing child my ass,_ Emma thought as she pulled back up at the sheriff's station.

She didn't want to be bitter, but it was hard not to be when she had just wasted her time.

She had arrived at the address of the missing boy; spoken to his parents, who were hysterical with worry; felt nauseous at the thought of losing Henry; made notes about the fact that the boy - 10-year-old Jason - had been in his room an hour earlier but had since disappeared and wasn't answering his phone; and started investigating and finding clues about where he could have gone and whether he was kidnapped. Forty minutes later, the door had opened and Jason himself had strolled in. He had only gone to his friend's house, and had apparently told his parents, though admitted that they probably hadn't heard him because they were busy yelling at each other. The mother had blushed, turned to Emma and said, ' _financial troubles.'_

So, Emma had left and headed back to the station.

By the time she got out of the patrol car, she was shaking from the cold night air. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself - freaking _denim_ jacket because her read leather one was still missing - and rushed into the station. She had gone to one of the clothes shops in Storybrooke that morning to buy a new red leather jacket, having lost hope of finding her original, but they hadn't had any. They had had denim jackets, though, and Emma decided to try one of those.

She had worn it to Granny's for lunch that same day, which earned a snort from Ruby and a judgemental, _'denim on denim, Em. Really?'_ Emma had looked down at her denim jacket and denim skinny jeans with a blush and vowed never to wear the damn jacket again after that day. But Emma was somewhat grateful for it now, knowing she would be freezing to death in just her t-shirt.

She jogged up the stairs, walked past her deputy and gave him a nod and a smile, then opened the door to her office...

To see Regina sitting on her chair?

"Regina?"

The brunette's eyes flickered from the desk to her, then back again. "Sheriff."

"Isn't today your birthday?"

"It is."

"Oh. Happy birthday," Emma said awkwardly. What on earth was she doing here? And why was she acting as though it were completely normal?

"Thank you."

"Shouldn't you be at your birthday meal thing?"

"You mean my 'soiree'?" Regina asked ironically, eyes finding Emma again. "That's what Zelena's been calling it. And yes, I should."

"Then why aren't you?" Emma asked, finding Regina's presence odd. But then she noticed something even odder which took precedence over Regina being in her office. "Wait... is that my red leather jacket? I've been looking everywhere for that! Why do you have it? And why are you wearing it?"

"Which question do you want me to answer first?" Regina said, amused.

"The jacket," Emma decided without having to think about it.

"I found it at my house, so you must have left it there. Henry said that it belonged to you. Goodness knows why you bought this unsightly thing, but it _has_ been keeping me warm while I wait for you."

Which brought Emma to her next question: "And _why_ have you been waiting for me?"

Regina didn't answer with words. She looked back at the desk again, so Emma followed her gaze, which is when her eyes landed on the familiar little box that she knew held the broach she had gotten Regina for her birthday.

Oh man.

"It's the broach that you saw when we were New York," Emma found herself explaining, simply to fill the silence. "You spent, like, five minutes staring at in through the shop window, so I thought you'd like it."

"I don't," Regina said bluntly, causing Emma's heart to stop. "I love it."

And Emma could breathe again.

"It must have been expensive," Regina commented.

Emma shrugged nonchalantly, as though it was no big deal, even though she had thought that the $212 it had cost her had been rather excessive. It didn't matter to her, though. Regina's happiness was priceless. "It was nothing."

"I doubt that," Regina said quietly, then stood up and faced Emma. "I've been anything but nice to you ever since I took the forgetting potion. I don't deserve this, yet you gave it to me anyway."

"Because I knew it would make you happy, and-"

"Haven't you done enough?" Regina asked. "Henry told me that you became the Dark One so that I could be happy. That's more than enough, Emma, you don't need to do any more."

"But I do," Emma insisted. "You won't remember this, but I made a vow a while back. I said that I wouldn't stop until everyone in Storybrooke had got their happy endings, and that includes you."

"And you thought that this broach would be my happy ending?"

Emma scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. "Well, no, but-"

"You want me to be happy because you love me." It was a statement, not a question, and it made Emma swallow.

"Yeah, exactly."

Regina nodded and folded her arms across her chest. "I don't want another True Love, Emma," She said, which made Emma's heart sink a little. She was going to be let down again. "I had Daniel, and I lost him. Then I had Robin, and I lost him too. I don't want to lose anyone else."

"I've been through a lot," Emma said, her voice wobbling a little. "I've broken curses, I've fought dragons, I've been to Neverland, I've been the Dark One, I've been to Hell and back, I've won the final battle, and trust me, that's not even the half of it. I'm not that easy to get rid of. I would never leave you."

"You don't know that," Regina said tiredly. Emma looked down. "But you've done so much for me," Regina continued. "I can tell that you care about my happiness, and I can tell that you care about me. Isn't that what everyone wants? To be loved so strongly by someone that you're their top priority. And you can give that to me, Emma."

Emma nodded rigorously. If she could just convince Regina...

"But more than that," Regina said. "No matter how much I've been trying to hate you, I just can't do it. Maybe you're right and it's the universe telling us that we're True Loves, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's because, deep down, I don't want to hate you. Don't get me wrong, you're annoying and stubborn and your dress sense is questionable," She looked down at the red leather jacket as if to prove her point. "But you're also sweet and persistent and so beautiful." Emma felt herself blush a little as she smiled. "So, I'm torn," Regina finished.

Emma stepped towards the brunette. "I know you're scared about being hurt, but trust me, I would _never_ hurt you. I will love you every single day of your life, doing everything in my power to make you the happiest woman on earth, and you would be making me happier than you can imagine just by letting me do that. And if you're still in doubt, then don't do it for you or me; do it for Mary Margaret."

At that, Regina frowned. "Mary Margaret?"

"She's been feeling guilty for years about what happened to Daniel. She took away the person that you loved, but then she created me," Emma smiled. "It's like she took away one True Love, so gave you another one."

Regina let out a little laugh. "That's true. Us being together would probably alleviate some of Snow's guilt. And I suppose the Evil Queen and the Saviour make a pretty great love story."

"They do," Emma agreed wholeheartedly.

"And Henry would be happy. He would have parents who are together."

"Exactly."

"And the mayor and the sheriff would make a formidable couple."

"Totally."

Regina smiled and looked down, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear and then stepping towards Emma so that they were only centimetres apart. "OK. I want this. But I swear to God, Miss Swan, if you hurt me or die on me then I will kill you. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Never call me that again," Regina said as she lifted her arms up and draped them around Emma's neck. Emma's heart was beating wildly, but a lazy smile took over her lips.

"Yes, dear."

"We sound like a married couple already, don't we?"

"We always have," Emma admitted, letting her hands rest gently on Regina's hips.

Regina licked her lips, letting her eyes drop to Emma's. She took a deep shaky breath, as though she was nervous. Honestly, Emma was just as nervous. Not only was she about to have her first kiss with Regina, but also, what if it didn't work? What if there was no burst of magic and what if Regina didn't get her memories back? Emma would be devastated.

She hadn't prepared herself yet, but Regina leaned in anyway, only hesitating for a second before pressing her lips firmly against Emma's.

And it worked.

Magic flowed between them, spreading across the surroundings in a way that Emma had experienced with Henry twice but had never shared with anyone in a romantic way. It made her feel dazed and she pulled back dreamily.

When she looked at Regina, she noticed a different look in the brunette's eyes than there had been a minute ago. She knew straight away, without knowing how, that it was because she had her memories back. And in confirmation, Regina said, "I remember."

"You do?" Emma said hopefully.

"Yes," Regina smiled dazzlingly wide. "And I love you too."

She pulled Emma towards her for another kiss, then another, then another, then another, until both women were laughing and had to stop before one of them lost a tooth.

"I can't believe you had my jacket this whole time," Emma said, being reminded of it when she felt the leathery material under her fingers.

" _That's_ what you're thinking about right now?" Regina said in disbelief, so Emma laughed. "By the way, you might need to get a new one of these," Regina indicated to the jacket.

"Why?"

"Because I'd quite like to keep this one."

Emma frowned. "Why? I thought you hated my jacket?"

"I hate what it looks like. But it smells of you, which makes me feel safe. So, can I keep it?"

Emma smiled down at the woman in front of her, then woman she loved, who was so cute and sentimental that she wanted to keep Emma's jacket.

But then she grabbed at her beloved jacket protectively and said, "No," which earned her a punch in the arm.

* * *

 _"Happy New Year!"_

Granny's Diner erupted into cheers and hoots as soon as the countdown reached zero. Party poppers were pulled, drinks were clinked together, fireworks could be seen through the window. It was a happy time, the beginning of a new year, who wouldn't be thrilled?

Well, Regina, for one.

She felt sick with nerves, even as Emma Swan, her girlfriend of 11 months, wished her a happy new year and placed a soft kiss on her lips. Regina swallowed and tried to calm her heart as she rested her forehead against Emma's.

"I'm keeping my eye on you tonight," Emma said jokingly. "I don't want you running away, taking a forgetting potion and forgetting me again." Regina smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, which is when Emma realised that something was wrong. She pulled back to look down at Regina with concern. "Everything OK?"

"Yes, I just," Regina hesitated, looked to the side and caught Henry's eye. As soon as she did, the teenage boy nudged his grandfather, who nudged Mary Margaret, who grinned and excitedly slapped Zelena's arm hard enough that the redhead shot daggers at her. In the end, though, Regina and Emma had an audience, and Emma knew it just as well as she did.

"What's going on?"

"Emma," Regina swallowed and wiped her hands on her skirt. She had prepared a speech, but her mind had gone blank with nerves. If the Evil Queen could see her now, she would have been ashamed. Well, Regina would just have to improvise. "We've been dating for a while now. You practically live at my house, we raise Henry together, we're family. I love you. I've spent my whole life searching for my happy ending, and you vowed a couple of years ago that you would help me find it. We didn't know back then that it was under our noses the whole time. It's you, Emma. You're my happy ending. There's just one thing left to do."

She reached into her blazer pocket, nudging the broach that Emma had got her last year as she did. It gave her a boost of confidence as she pulled out the ring box.

She heard Emma gasp, knew that the whole room was watching her, but still got down on her knees (her skirt was too restrictive for her to get on just one knee) and opened the box. "Emma Swan, my True Love, my Saviour... will you marry me?"

Emma's eyes filled with tears as she said, "Yes!"

Emma helped Regina up, held her face and kissed her so hard that Regina thought she might pass out. The room erupted into cheers again but Regina could only look at Emma Swan, her fiancee.

"I love you," Emma said softly, clinging to Regina as though she were a lifeline. "Regina Swan-Mills."

"I love you too, Emma Swan-Mills."

* * *

 **A/N: And there we have it! I can't thank you enough for reading and sticking with this story. You're all amazing. This didn't turn out at all as I had intended, so if you stuck with it, I love you.**

 **I intended to update all three of my fics today because I'm going on holiday tomorrow, but I only managed to update two as I've been busy packing, plus it was my birthday a couple of day ago. On the bright side, this is one of the lucky ones!**

 **Before you all go, I have a request. Since I'll have more time on my hands with it being summer, I'd like to start another multi-chapter SQ fic, but I have three ideas and can't decide which to pursue. That's where you come in! I've created a poll which should be on my profile (if I managed to do it right). Please could you go and read the summaries I have written and vote for which you would like to read most.**

 **Thank you so much in advance.**

 **And goodbye!**


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